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THE FALLEN BRAVE: 



;i0paj)l«tal U 



THE AMERICAN OFEICERS 



WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES FOR THE PKES ER V A'l' 10 N OF 



THE UNION. 



E D I '!■ E D H V 



JOHN GIL MARY SHEA 

m\i\i «g^t fortnuts on §tfd, 

BY J. A. O'NIill.I,. 



NEW YORK: 

C 11 A R L E S V,. R I 11 A M D 8 O N & C O. 

1 SC 1 



■5 5*3 



Entered iiccordinj; to Act of Congress, in the year 1S61, by 

JOHN GILMAKY SHEA, 

111 the Clerk's Offieu of the District Court for the Southern District of New Yorli. 



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StEIIEOTVHEUS i>iD KLECTKUTYKtli 

81, n. «iid 83 Centre «lreel. 

NtW VOUK. 

O. A. AI,VORI>, 

Printer. 

13 V«Ti<le«alerHreet, New Vork. 



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PREFACE. 



While our land was teeming with plenty, busy with the hum of 
industry, and looking hopefully forward to the glorious future before it, 
a chasm suddenly yawned in its midst, threatening destruction to our 
Republic. Curtius-like, many a brave man has plunged in, glad to oiFer 
his life, his arms, and his courage, if the sacrifice could close the abyss, 
and restore union to the land. 

Rome embalmed in eternal benediction the memory of her Curtius, — 
shall we be less grateful to a Ward, a Lyon, a Baker, an Ellsworth, a 
Winthrop, a Lowe, a Cameron, a Haggerty, or the other noble officers 
who have reckoned their lives as naught in the hour of our country's 
peril ? 

Ingratitude is not a trait in our national character. Their names 
and their features will be ever dear to us, and we shall make them 
familiar to our children. The veteran of the regular service, the officer 
of the militia prompt at his country's call, the noble volunteer — all 
rallied around the assaulted flag of the free, and with united hands 
upheld the Star-spangled Banner. 

A memorial of these martyrs of patriotism is here presented. Every 
effort has been employed to make it worthy by pen and pencil of the 
illustrious dead ; that it may Ijc a precious volume — a tribute fitting 
now, a beautiful monument hereafter. 



PREFACE. 

The memoirs, when not furnished by friends and relatives of the 
follen officers, have been compiled from information collected at those 
sources, and from the official reports of the military movements and 
engagements, — the intention and desire being to give in their true 
colors the lives of these noble men. To all who have contributed to his 
work, lioth those whose names here appear, and those who have other- 
wise aided him, the editor returns his sincere thanks ; and especially to 
the Hon. John R. Bartlett, for the sketches of the officers of his State, 
and to Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, for their kindly accorded permission 
to use Mr. Curtis's sketch of Winthrop. 

It would have been most desirable to present portraits of all the 
officers, but this was not in all cases feasible, and would in fact have 
made the work beyond the reach of most. Those we have given are 
not mere crude, hasty affairs, or old plates altered, but portraits accu- 
rately and carefully engraved by a competent hand, from models fur- 
nished by those most competent to judge of the likeness. 

If the present volume meets the public approval, which it honestly 
seeks, it will Ije followed in time by a second, embracing sketches of 
future martyrs to the cause of constitutional freedom, and of some whose 
biographies could not be prepared in season for this. 

When the darkened mind of rebellion seeks to cover its crime by 
aspersing the loyal, by affixing odious nicknames, by every imputation 
of moral worthlessness, it is not unwise for America to hold up the lives 
of her Fallen Brave! There is none of whose life she need blush, whose 
death she may not at once deplore and admire. To their fellow-soldiers 
still facing the foe, they are a justification, a pattern, and a waleliwurd. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Colonel Eptiuaim E. Ellsworth, Eleventh N. Y. V By the Editor. 11 

Major Theodore Winthrop, U. S. A By George W. Curtis. 25 

Lieutenant John T. Greble, IT. S. A By the Editor. 43 

Captain James H. Ward, U. S. N By the Editor. 55 

Colonel Noah L. Farnham, Eleventh N. Y. V By the Editor. 65 

Colonel James Cameron, Seventy-ninth N. Y. M By the Editor. 7 1 

Colonel John S. Slocum, Second R. I. V .By the Editor. 81 

Major Sullivan Ballou, Second R. I. V 89 

Captain Levi Tower, Second R. L V 95 

Lieutenant-colonel James Haggertv, Sixty-ninth N. Y. M By the Editor. 101 

Captain E. W. Jones, Maine Y By Rev. A. J. Bates. 109 

Captain Otis IL Tillinghast, U. S. A By John S. Tillinyhast. 115 

Lieutenant Presley O. Craig, U. S. A By John iV. Craig. 123 

Captain Charles M. McCook, Second Ohio V By Daniel McCook. 135 

BiiiGADiER-GENERAL Nathaniel Lyon, U. S. A By the Editor. 1-H 

Lieutenants L. L. Jones and C. S. Pratt, First Kansas V By the Editor. 159 

Colonel John W. Lowe, Twelfth Ohio V By T. 0. Lowe. 165 

Colonel E. D. Baker, U. S. S., N. Y. V By Oeorye Wilkes. 177 

Lieutenant W. L. Putnam, Mass. V By Rev. J. F. Clarke. 187 

Lieutenant John ^V. Grout, Mass. V By Rev. E. Cutler. 197 

Lieutenant \Yilliam Shipley, III. Y By the Editor. 205 

Captain Henry H. Alden, Forty-second N. Y. V By the Editor. 211 

Major John S Gavitt, Ind. V By the Editor. 219 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



MAJOR THEODORE WINTHROP To face Title. 

COLONEL E. E. ELLSWORTH " fage 13 

LIEUTENANT J. T. GREBLE " " 45 

CAPTAIN J. H. WARD " " 57 

MAJOR SULLIVAN BALLOU " " 91 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL N. LYON " •■ 143 

COLONEL J. W. LOWE " ■■ 167 

COLONEL E. D. BAKER " " 179 



ELLSWORTH. 








t I}uendX €otiJ-s J- S*, S*<t^ifiK Duv.^r 



COLONEL EPHRAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH, 



OF THE NEW YORK FIRE ZOUAVES. 



" Poor Ellsworth ! a fellow of genius and initiative !" wrote one 
soon to Ml himself gloriously in the right cause. The real genius, 
the chivalric spirit of Ellsworth, had, during his short career, made 
him known and prized throughout the land, and few men ever fell 
followed by more sincere regret. 

Born at Mechauicsville, a small town in Saratoga County, on the 
banks of the Hudson, on the 23d of April, 1837, his early years were 
shadowed by the total wreck of his father s fortunes in the financial 
troubles which, about the period of his birth, swept over the land. 
His father never was able to retrieve his ruined fortunes ; disaster 
followed disaster, and Elmer was thrown on his own resources De- 
prived of opportunities for advancement, after various employments 
in Troy and New York, and ineffectual efforts to enter West Point, 
for which the studies he had ardently and at great sacrifices pursued 
admirably fitted him, but from which the want of political patronage 
excluded him, he sought the West, and at Chicago, before he came 
to man's estate, was successfully engaged in business as a patent agent. 
Energetic and attentive to his affairs, he was soon building up his 



COLONEL EPHRAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH. 

fortune, but, like many a noble-hearted man, beheld the fruit of 
his toil swept from him by the fraud of one whom he had trusted. 
He did not sink under this reverse, but resolving to enter the legal 
profession, began his studies, earning the means of sustaining life 
by the drudgery of copying, in the hours given by others to re- 
laxation or rest. But though he had thus chosen a profession, and 
devoted himself with all his enei'gy and intellect to acquire it, the 
career of arms was that for which he had the greatest predilection. 
True of eye and hand, a perfect adept in all gymnastic exercises, 
he soon rendered himself an unequalled swordsman and marksman. 
Yet it was not to give himself the skill of a duellist that he practised 
the use of weapons : he had great and noble plans in view, — plans 
which must ultimately be adopted, at least in part. Our militia system 
now is little better than a farce. To make it a real arm in the defence 
of the country against foes from abroad, or in the suppression of rebel- 
lion at home, was Ellsworth's ambition. One means to effect this was 
to popularize the system of military training, and to adapt the system 
in use to actual requirements. The light infantry corps of France, 
which, under the name of Zouave, had been so eflicient in Africa, 
Russia, and Italy, seemed to him a model for the American militia ; 
and he devoted himself to a thorough study of the French manual 
translated under the direction of Hardee, developing and arranging 
the various raovementa till he had made them meet every test which he 
applied. Having perfectly mastered it himself, he gathered around him 
a set of fine, temperate, athletic young men, who entered with spirit 
into his system, and on the 4th of May, 1859, he organized the United 
States Zouave Cadets of Chicago, the first Zouave company ever seen 
in the countrv. In their attire, he flung aside the last relics of the 



COLONEL EPHRAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH. 

old awkward dress, and adopted one that left the limbs and joints at 
liberty : but his regime was as strict as the garb was loose. Total 
abstinence from intoxicating liquors and from tobacco, was a strict 
law, the violation of which blotted the name of the oftender from the 
roll. This corps he trained, as opportunity oifered, for about a year, 
until he was himself satisfied with their efficiency : and he gave his 
attention likewise to similar organizations in Springfield and Rockford. 
At the United States Agricultural Fair, Ellsworth's Zouaves won the 
colors, and won it only to hold it as a prize to be contended for, the 
property of any company who could exhibit a superior efficiency. 

The novelty of the dress, and the exactness and celerity of their 
evolutions, soon made the Chicago Zouaves known far and wide ; and 
in July, 1860, they made a tour to the East, inviting any of the militia 
companies to compete with them for the colors. Their exercises were 
visited by crowds, — officers anxious to see and study, fair ladies to won- 
der, young men to be inspired with military zeal. In the city of New 
York, the Academy of Music was the scene of an exhibition which 
filled a house as densely as the most popular singer ever did. 

Ellsworth was now known and appreciated. He felt that a great 
step had been made in the reform of our militia, and on his return 
formed a volunteer regiment, which he tendered to the newly-elected 
governor, as if conscious that the elements of discord in the country 
would soon, very soon, make war inevitable. In the presidential 
canvass he was a warm supporter of Mr. Lincoln, and advanced his 
cause by his eloquent and stirring appeals, speaking in various parts, 
and always to great crowds, whom his popularity drew around him. 

During the session of the Legislature he actively exerted himself 
to obtain the passage of a military bill which would put Illinois in a 



COLONEL KPIIRAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH. 

state of preparation ; but this step was defeated through that stubborn 
disbelief in danger which so generally blinded the North. 

The presidential election, mainly by that division in the democratic 
party which the Southern politicians had caused, resulted in the election 
of Abraham Lincoln. To him Ellsworth was by no means unknown ; 
on the contrary, he regarded him with the warmest friendship, and 
looked upon him as one destined to l)e of immense service to his 
country. At his request Ellsworth accompanied him to Washington, 
and received a lieutenant's commission, as a preliminary to his entrance 
into the War Department, where he hoped to create the Militia Bureau, 
of which he had long been jjreparing the plan. But at Washington 
he was soon heartily disgusted with the selfish, unpatriotic throng of 
office-seekers, who, regardless of the weal or woe of the country, grasp 
at place to dishonor it. But their machinations were soon to cease. 

The most terrible war that has ever shaken the continent of Amer- 
ica, had already begun-; a wicked, unjust war ; a war waged against 
a government and a flag, to which its enemies can impute no crime. 

Before the close of the administration of James Buchanan, the four- 
teenth successor of George Washington, and immediately upon the close 
of. the election of a new president. South Garolina assumed the right 
of destroying the Union, and reducing the States to the isolated con- 
dition in which thirteen of them stood prior to 1775. She boldly 
seized all property belonging to the United States within her reach, 
and rai.sing an army menaced Fort Moultrie, the only strong-place 
where the flag of the United States still floated. Mississippi, Alabama, 
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, followed the course of South Caro- 
lina, and, on the 9th of February, with her adopted a Constitution under 
the name of the Confederate States of America, and elected JetFerson 



COLONEL EPHRAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH. 

Davis president. The President of the United States, whose authority 
was thus set at naught, had received Commissioners from South Caro- 
lina, Avith the simple answer, that he had no power to recognize them or 
the action of their State : but no step was taken to meet the coming 
storm. Like a Roman emperor sunk in apathy or voluptuousness in 
his gorgeous capital, while some popular general in a distant province 
had declared himself emperor, and securing - possession of provinces 
was marching on the Eternal City, that emperor there, he might be 
ruler of the whole Roman world, — so the government at Washington 
lay with its petty army disorganized by treason, with an exhausted 
treasury, making no eifort to strike a single blow for existence, while 
armies were gathering in the South, and force and wile were both em- 
ployed to di-aw new States into ,+'^e conspiracy. The same apathy 
overspread the Northern States, and the fiibric reared with the blood 
of the noblest heroes would have fallen without a blow, had not the 
commander of Fort Moultrie, placed there in the hope that he would 
prove recreant to his trust, suddenly transferred his petty force to the 
advantageous Fort Sumter. That strong post concentrated the atten- 
tion of the South : they resolved that no troops, no provisions should 
reach it. A vessel sent to it was fired upon ; and when, on the 4th of 
March, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United 
States, and avowed his intention to relieve Fort Sumter, the war began 
in earnest in the fearful bombardment of that fort from Fort Moultrie 
and the numerous batteries which the enemy had been suffered to plant 
around it. How gallantly Anderson stood that siege will ever be 
remembei-ed : he capitulated only when the fort was wrapped in flames, 
and all further effort unavailing. 

This unjustifiable attack on the flag of the country roused the loyal 

17 



COLON F:L EPHRAIM 1.T,MKK ELLSWORTH. 

States to action : vet their exertion was not proportioned to the crisis. 
The arming' of one State, in o[)en violation of the Constitntion. shonhl 
have been followed Ijv the iustantaneons arming of the nation : as it 
was, one side armed to destroy the government, none armed to save. 
The president, on the 15th of April, acting nnder a law passed in 17!)'), 
called forth, by a memorable proclamation, 75,000 men of the militia 
of the several States. Then the North moved. Massachusetts sent on 
her troops to the capital of the Union, already menaced by the army 
of the rebellion. New York, by an act of her Legislature on the Kith, 
empowered her governor to call out 30,000 men, and appropriated 
money to meet the expense necessary. Two days after. Governor 
Morgan, of New York, issued his ])rocLimation calling for men to de- 
fend the menaced Union. The State responded to the call: the organ- 
ized militia were all eager to march to the field. New corps were at 
once projected. And Ellsworth appeared in the van. When Sumter 
fell, he sprang to action. Disgusted with the chicanery and corruption 
of \Yashington, he threw up his newly-acquired commission, and has- 
tened to New York to raise a regiment among the hardy and adven- 
turous firemen of that city, whom he knew so well, and in whom he 
beheld such e.xccllont material for soldiers. A short interview with 
John Decker, the chief of the Fire Department, settled all to his satis- 
faction. That officer issued a requisition appealing to the department 
for volunteers. Never was an appeal so promptly met. In two days 
twelve hundred recruits had enrolled their names. Ten companies 
were accepted, and proceeded to Fort Hamilton to drill. The jaded 
look now disappeared, — Ellsworth was at work, and at the work he 
loved. His face was radiant with his wonted happy smile, and his 
tread, elastic as of old, gave his whole figure that graceful and com- 



COLONEL EPIIUAIM ELiMER ELLSWOKTH. 

manding attitude wliicli were so peculiar and so well known. To 
bring his new regiment into discipline was, however, no easy task. 
Yet he lal:)ored night and day, winning his way to their heart? and 
acquiring perfect control over them. New Yoi'k was enthusiastic over 
her Fire Zouaves ; and three stands of colors were presented to them. 
The first, a magnificent set. the gift of the city and of the Fire De- 
partment, was presented at their temporary barracks, in Canal-street, 
Colonel Ellsworth responding in a few modest and characteristic re- 
marks. The Hon. John A. Dix presented a second on behalf of Mrs. 
Augusta Astor, and the regiment then marched through the most im- 
portant streets, escorted by nearly five thousand of their fellow-firemen; — 
first to the Astor House, where a third set of colors was presented by 
Mr. Stetson, in the name of the ladies of the house ; then to the Baltic, 
at the foot of Canal-street, where, after being drawn up to receive an 
address from the Hon. Ca.ssins M. Clay, they embarked and steamed 
away to Annapolis. Reaching that city, they pushed on at once to 
Washington, which Ellsworth entered at the head of his regiment on 
the 2d of May, amid an ovation equalling that which had attended his 
departure from New York. The man of energy, action, discipline, 
had performed a great task. Less than three weeks before he stood 
benfeath the shadow of the Capitol, about to start alone, without com- 
mission, authority, or reliance, but his own resolute will ; and now he 
stood there again at the head of a splendid regiment, which he had 
raised and organized and brought to the field of danger. Alas ! how 
few then comprehended the danger as he did, or took such active 
steps to meet it ! A hundred Ellsworths had saved the land ! 

Ellsworth and his regiment were at first quartered in the Capitol, — 
the Hall of the Representatives of the nation was filled with these first 



COLONEL EPIIKAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH. 

volunteers. The yt)iing colonel worked on, steadily drilling and organ- 
izing his men, endeavoring to bring into discipline men brave to a 
fault, but least of all susceptible of control. Most to their taste was 
the command he gave on the 9th of May, to a hundred to aid in extin- 
guishing a lire which had broken out in a small hotel adjoining 
Willard's, and kindled by some hostile hand in hopes of destroying 
valuable government stores. Before the alarm had spread, they had 
burst into the engine-house, and were, in the fashion of their city, 
pouring their streams of water on the flaming Iniilding. This act in- 
creased the poi)ularity of the regiment ut Washington, and won them 
good opinions. 

The time for action at last came. On the 2'2d of May, orders came 
to prepare to march to Alexandria. In the temporary camp ol' the 
regiment, Ellsworth prepared for the actual advance of his regiment. 
A presentiment of his coming fate was upon him. He wrote a parting 
letter to the betrothed of his heart, and to his parents these words : 

HEAii-(irAUTi:i:^ Kiiisi' Zoi-avks, ('ami- I.incch.n, | 
WASiiiNciTox, May 23. ( 

My de.vk Fatheu and Motheii: 

The regiment is ordered to move across the river to-night. We have 
no means of knowing Avhat reception we are to meet with. I am in- 
clined to the opinion that our entrance into Alexandria will lie hotly 
contested, as I am just informed a large force have arrived there to-day. 
Should that happen, my dear parents, it may Ijc my lot to be injured 
in some manner. 

Whatever may happen, cherish the consolation that I was engaged 
in the performance of a sacred duty; and to-night, thinking over the 



COLONEL EPHRAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH. 

probabilities of the morrow and the occurrences of the past, I am per- 
fectly content to accept whatever my fortune may be, confident that He 
who noteth even the Ml of a sparrow, will have some purpose even 
in the fate of one like me. 

My darling and ever loved parents, good-by. God bless, pro- 
tect, and care for you. 

Elmer. 

While some regiments, the New York Sixty-Ninth, Twenty-Eighth, 
Fifth, Twelfth, and Twenty-Fifth, Michigan First, New Jersey Fourth, 
and parts of others, were to cross the Long Bridge and Chain Bridge 
and march down, Ellsworth's regiment was to cross in steamboats. 
These came up at two o'clock in the morning, under Captain Dahlgren, 
and in two hours all were on board, leaving their camp in charge of 
a small guard. As the steamers approached the wharf at Alexandria, 
the rebel sentinels lircd their guns and disappeared, running up into 
the town. The Pawnee, lying in the stream, had already proposed 
terras of submission to the town, which the rebels had accepted, agree- 
ing to vacate the place. Learning this, and satisfied that no resistance 
would be offered, Ellsworth gave the necessary directions to interrupt 
railroad communication; and proceeded in person, with a detachment 
of the first company, to seize the telegraph, and prevent any use of it 
detrimental to the cause. On his way thither he caught sight of the 
secession flag floating from the Marshall House, an inferior inn. Acting 
on the impulse of the moment, he entered with his party, and meeting 
a man in his shirt and pantaloons, asked what flag it was. The man, 
really James T. Jackson, the proprietor, a violent partisan of the rebel- 
lion notorious for acts of cruelty and oppression, professed to know 



WINTHROP. 



MAJOR THEODORE WINTHROP, U. S. A 

KILLED AT GREAT BETHEL, June 10, 1861, 



Theodore Winthrops life, like a fire long sinouldering, suddenly 
Ijlazed up into a clear, bright flame, and vanished. Those of us who 
were his friends and neighbors, l)y whose firesides he sat familiarly, 
and of whose life upon the pleasant Staten Island, where he lived, he 
was so important a part, were so impressed by his intense vitality, that 
his death strikes us with peculiar strangeness, like sudden winter- 
silence falling upon these humming fields of June. 

1 look along the wooded brook-side by which he used to come, 
I should not be surprised, if I saw that knit, wiry, light figure moving 
with quick, firm, leopard tread over the grass, — the keen gray eye, 
the clustering fair hair, the kind, serious smile, the mien of undaunted 
patience. If you did not know him, you would have found his greet- 
ing a little constrained, — not from shyness, but from genuine modesty 
and the hal)it of society. You would have remarked that he was 
silent and ol)servant rather than talkative ; and whatever he said, how- 
ever gay or grave, would have had the reserve of sadness upon which 
his whole character was drawn. If it were a woman who saw him 
for the first time, she would inevitably see him through a slight cloud 



MAJOR THEODUKE WIN THRO P. 

of misapprehension ; for the man and his manner were a little at vari- 
ance. The chance is, that at tlie end of five minutes she would have 
thought him conceited. At the end of five months she would have 
known him as one of the simplest and most truly modest of men. 

And he had tlie heroic sincerity which belongs to such modesty. 
Of a noble ambition, and sensitive to a^iplause, — as every delicate 
nature veined with genius always is, — he would not provoke the ap- 
plause by doing any thing which, although it lay easily within his 
power, was yet not wholly approved by him as worthy. Many men 
are amljitious and full of talent, and when the prize does not fairly 
come they snatch at it unfairly. This was precisely what he could not 
do. He would strive and deserve ; but if the crown were not laid 
upon his head in the clear light of day and by confession of alisolute 
merit, he could ride to his place again and wait, looking with no envy, 
but in patient wonder and with critical curiosity upon the victors. It 
is this which he expresses in the paper in the July number of the 
Atlantic Monthly Magazine " Washington as a Camp,'' when he says, — 
" I have heretofore been proud of my individuality, and resisted, so far 
as one may, all the world's attempts to merge me in the mass." 

It was this which made many who knew him mucli, but not truly, 
feel that he was purposeless and restless. They knew his talent, his 
opportunities. Why does he not concentrate ? Why does he not bring 
himself to bear? He did not plead his ill-health; nor would they 
have allowed the plea. The difficulty was deeper. He felt that he 
had shown his credentials, and they were not accepted. "I can wait, 
I can wait," was the answer his life made to the impatience of his 
friends. 

We are all fond of saying that a man of real gifts will lit himself 



MAJOR THKODORE WINTHKOP. 

to the work of any time; and so he will. But it is not necessarily to 
the first thing that offers. There is always latent in civilized society 
a certain amount of what may be called Sir Philip Sidney genius, which 
will seem elegant and listless and aimless enough until the congenial 
chance appears. A plant may grow in a cellar; but it wuU flourish 
only under the due sun and warmth. Sir Philip Sidney was but a 
lovely possibility, until he went to be governor of Flushing. What 
else was our friend, until he went to the war? 

The age of Elizaljcth did not monopolize the heroes, and they are 
always essentially the same. When, for instance, I read in a letter of 
Hubert Languet's to Sidney, " You are not ovei'-cheerful by nature," 
or when, in another, he speaks of the portrait that Paul Veronese 
painted of Sidney, and says, "The painter has represented you sad 
and thoughtful," I can believe that he is speaking of my neighbor. 
Or wdien I remember what Sidney wrote to his younger brother, — 
" Being a gentleman Ijorn, you purpose to furnish yourself with the 
knowledge of such things as may be serviceable to your country and 
calling," or what he wrote to Languet, — "Our princes are enjoying 
too deep a slumber ; I cannot think there is any man possessed of com- 
mon understanding who does not see to what these rough storms are 
driving by which all Christendom has been agitated now these many 
years," — I seem to hear my friend, as he used to talk on the Sunday 
evenings when he sat in this huge cane-chair at my side, in which I 
saw him last, and in which I shall henceforth always see him. 

Nor is it unfair to remember just here that he bore one of the 
few really historic names in this country. He never spoke of it ; but 
we should all have been sorry not to feel that he was glad to have 
Bprung straight from that second John Winthrop who was the first 



MAJOK THEOUORK WINTHROP. 

governor of Connecticut, the younger sister colony of Massachusetts 
Bay, — the John Winthrop who obtained the charter of privileges for 
his colony. lIt)W clearly the quality of the man has been transmitted ! 
How brightly the old uame shines out again !. 

He was born in New Haven on the 22d of September, 1828, and 
was a grave, delicate, rather precocious child. He was at school only 
in New Haven, and entered Yale College just as he was sixteen. The 
pure, manly morality which was the substance of his character, and 
his lirilliant exploits of scholarship, made him the idol of his college 
friends, who saw in him the promise of the splendid career which the 
fond faith of students allots to the favorite classmate. He studied for 
the Clark scholarship, and gained it; and his name, in the order of 
time, is first upon the roll of that foundation. For the Berkeleian scholar- 
ship he and another were judged equal, and drawing lots, the other 
gained the scholarship ; but they divided the honor. 

In college his favorite studies were Greek and mental philosophy. 
He never lost the scholarly taste and haliit. A wide reader, he re- 
tained knowledge with little efibrt, and often surprised his friends by 
the variety of his information. Yet it was not strange, for he was born 
a scholar. His mother was the great-granddaughter of ohl President 
Edwards ; and among his relations upon the maternal side, Winthrop 
counted six presidents of colleges. Perhaps also in this learned descent 
we may find the secret of his early seriousness. Thoughtful and self- 
criticising, he was j^eculiarly sensible to religious influences, under 
which his criticism easily became self-accusation, and his sensitive 
seriousness gi'cw sometimes morl^id. He would have studied for 
the ministry or a, pidfcssorship, upon leaving college, except for his 
failing health. 



MAJOR THEODORE WINTIIROP. 

In the later days, when I knew him, the feverish ardor of the first 
religious impulse was past. It had given place to a faith much too 
deep and sacred to talk about, yet holding him always with serene, 
steady poise in the purest region of life and feeling. There was no 
franker or more sympathetic companion for young men of his own 
age than he ; but his conversation fell from his lips as unsullied as 
his soul. 

He graduated in 1848, when he was twenty years old; and for 
the sake of his health, which was seriously shattered, — an ill-health 
that colored all his life, — he set out upon his travels. He went first 
to England, spending much time at Oxford, where he made pleasant 
acquaintances, and walking through Scotland. He then crossed over 
to France and Germany, exploring Switzerland very thoroughly upon 
foot, — once or twice escaping great dangers among the mountains,- — 
and pushed on to Italy and Greece, still walking much of tlie way. 
In Italy he made the acquaintance of Mr. W. H. Aspinwall, of New 
York, and upon his return became tutor to Mr. Aspinwall's son. He 
presently accompanied his pupil and a nephew of Mr. Aspinwall, who 
were going to a school in Switzerland ; and after a second short tour 
of six months in Europe he returned to New York, and entered Mr. 
Aspinwall's counting-house. In the employ of the Pacific Steamship 
Company he went to Panama and resided for about two years, — travel- 
ling, and often ill of the fevers of the country. Before his return he 
travelled through California and Oregon, — went to Vancouver's Island, 
Paget Sound, and the Hudson Bay Company's station there. At the 
Dalles he was smitten with the small-pox, and lay ill for six weeks. 
He often spoke with the warmest gratitude of the kind cai'e that was 
taken of him there. But when only partially recovered he plunged 



MAJOR TIIEOnORE WINTIIROP. 

off again into the wilderness. At another time he fell very ill upon 
the plains, and lay down, as he supposed, to die ; but after some time 
struggled np and on again. 

He returned to the counting-room, l)ut, unsated with adventure, 
loined the disastrous expedition of Lieutenant Strain, during which 
his health was still more weakened, and he came home again in 1854. 
In the following year he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. 
In 1850 he entered heartily into the Fremont campaign, and from the 
strongest conviction. He went into some of the (hxrk districts of Penn- 
sylvania and spoke incessantly. The roving life and its jjicturesque 
ejiisodes, with the earnest conviction which inspired him, made the 
summer and autumn exciting and pleasant. The following year he 
went to St. Louis the practise law. The climate was unkind to him, 
and he returned and Ijegan to practice in New York. But he could 
not l^e a lawyer. His health was too uncertain, and his tastes and 
ambition allured him elsewhere. His mind was brimming with the 
results of observation. His fancy was alert and inventive, and he wrote 
tales and novels. At the same time he delighted to haunt the studio 
of his friend Church, the painter, and watch day by day the progress 
of his picture, the Heart of the Andes. It so fired his imagination 
that he wrote a description of it; in which, as if rivalling the tropical 
and tangled richness of the picture, he threw together such heaps 
and masses of gorgeous words that the reader was dazzled and be- 
wildered. 

The wild campaigning life was always a secret passion with him. 
His stories of travel were so graphic and warm, that I remombor one 
evening, after we had been tracing upon the map a route he had 
taken, and he had touched the whole region into life with his de- 



MAJOR THEODORE WINTHROP. 

scription, my younger brother, who had sat by and listened with wide 
eyes all the evening, exclaimed with a sigh of regretful satisfaction, 
as the door closed upon our story-teller, " It's as good as Robinson 
Crusoe!" Yet, with all his fondness and fitness for that kind of life, 
or indeed any active administrative function, his literary ambition 
seemed to be the deepest and strongest. 

He had always been writing. In college and n\)on his travels he 
kept diaries ; and he has left behind him several novels, tales, sketches 
of travel, and journals. The first published writing of his which is well 
known, is his description, in the June number of the Atlantic Monthly, 
of the March of the Seventh Regiment of New York to Washington. 
It was charming by its graceful, sparkling, crisp, off-hand dash and 
ease. But it is only the practised hand that can " dash off" effectively. 
Let any other clever member of the clever regiment, who has never 
written, try to dash off the story of a day or a week in the life of the 
regiment, and he will see that the writer did that little thing well 
because he had done large things carefully. Yet, amid all the hurry 
and brilliant bustle of the articles, the author is, as he was in the most 
bustling moment of the life they described, a spectator, an artist. He 
looks on at himself and the scene of which he is part. He is willing 
to merge his individuality ; but he does not merge it, for he could not. 

So, wandering, hoping, trying, waiting, thirty-two years of his life 
went by, and they left him true, sympathetic, patient. The sharp 
private griefs that sting the heart so deeply, and leave a little poison 
behind, did not spare him. But he bore every thing so bravely, so 
silently,— often silent for a whole evening in the midst of pleasant 
talkers, but not impertinently sad, nor ever sullen,— that we all loved 
him a little more at such times. The ill-health from wliich he always 



MAJOR TIIEODOKE WIxVTHROP. 

suftered, and a fluwLT-iike delicacy of temperament, the yearninii; desire 
to be of some service in the world, coupled with the curious, critical 
introspection which marks every sensitive and refined nature and par- 
alyzes action, overcast his life and manner to the common eye with 
pensiveness and even sternness. He wrote verses in which his heart 
seems to exhale in a sigh of sadness. But he was not in the least a 
sentimentalist. T-he womanly grace of temperament merely enhanced 
the unusual manliness of his character and impression. It was like a 
delicate carnation upon the cheek of a robust man. For his humor 
was exuberant. He seldom laughed loud, but his smile was sweet and 
appreciative. Then the range of his sympathies was so large, that lie 
enjoyed every kind of life and person, and was everywhere at home. 
In walking and riding, in skating and running, in games out of doors 
and in, no one of us all in the neighborhood was so expert, so agile 
as he. For, above all things, he had what we Yankees call faculty, — 
the knack of doing every thing. If he rode with a neighbor who 
was a good horseman, Theodore, who was a Centaur, when he mounted, 
would put any horse at any gate or fence ; ibr it did not occur to him 
that he could not do whatever was to be done. Often, after writing 
for a few houi's in the morning, he stejiped out of doors, and, from 
pure love of the fun, leaped and turned sununersaults on the grass, 
before going up to town. In walking about the island, he constantly 
stopped by the roadside fences, and, grasping the highest rail, swung 
himself swiftly and neatly over and back again, resuming the walk 
and the talk without delay. 

I do not wish to make him too much a hero. " Death," says 
Bacon, " openeth the gate to good fame." When a neighbor dies, 
his i'orm and ((uality nj)pear clearly, as if he had been dead a thou- 



MAJOR THEODORE WIXTHROP. 

sand years. Then we see what we only felt before. Heroes in history 
seem to us poetic because they are there. But if we should tell the 
simple truth of some of our neighbors, it would sound like poetry. 
Winthrop was one of the men who represent the manly and poetic 
qualities that always exist around us, — not great genius, which is ever 
salient, but the fine fibre of manhood that makes the worth of the race. 

Closely engaged with his literary employments, and more quiet 
than ever, he took less active jaart in the last election. But when the 
menace of treason became an aggressive act, he saw very clearly the 
inevitable necessity of arms. We all talked of it constantly, — watching 
the news, — chafing at the sad necessity of delay, which was sure to 
confuse foreign opinion and alienate sympathy, as has proved to be 
the case. As matters advanced and the war-cloud rolled up thicker 
'and blacker, he looked at it with the secret satisfaction that war for 
such a cause opened his career both as thinker and actor. The ad- 
mirable coolness, the promptness, the cheerful patience, the heroic 
ardor, the intelligence, the tough experience of campaigning, the pro- 
found conviction that the cause was in truth " the good old cause," 
which was now to come to the death-grapple with its old enemy, 
Justice against Injustice, Order against Anarchy, — all these should now 
have their turn, and the wanderer and waiter "settle himself" at last. 

We took a long walk together on the Sunday that brought the news 
of the capture of Fort Sumter. He was thoroughly alive with a bright, 
earnest forecast of his part in the coming work. Returning home with 
rae, he sat until late in the evening talking with an unwonted spirit, 
saying plaj-fully, I remember, that, if his friends would only give him 
a horse, he would ride straight to victory. Especially he wished that 
some competent person would keep a careful record of events as they 



MAJOR THEODORE WINTIIROP. 

passed; "for we are making our liistorj^," he said, "hand over hand." 
He sat quietly in the great chair while he spoke, and at last rose to 
go. We went together to the door, and stood for a little while upon 
the piazza, where we had sat peacefully through so many golden 
summer-hours. The last hour for us had come, but we did not know 
it. We shook hands, and he left me, passing rapidly along the brook- 
side under the trees, and so in the soft spring starlight vanished from 
my sight forever. 

The next morning came the President's proclamation. Winthrop 
went immediately to town and enrolled him.self in the artillery corps 
of the Seventh Regiment. During the two or three following days 
he was very busy and very happy. On Friday afternoon, the 19th of 
April, I stood at the corner of Courtlandt-street and saw the regiment 
as it marched away. Two days before, I had seen the Massachusetts 
troops going down the same street. During the day the news had 
come that they were already engaged, that some were already dead in 
Baltimore. And the Seventh, as they went, blessed and wept over by a 
great city, went, as we all believed, to terrible battle. The setting sun 
in a clear April sky shone full up the street. Mothers' eyes glistened 
at the wind<nvs upon the glistening bayonets of their boys below. I 
knew that Winthrop and other dear friends were there, but I did not 
see them. I saw only a thousand men marching like one hero. The 
music beat aJid rang and clashed in the air. ^larching to death or 
victory or defeat, it mattered not. They marched for Justice, and God 
was their captain. 

From that moment he has told his own story, until he went to 
Fortress Monroe, and was made acting military secretary and aid by 
General Butlei-. Before he went, he wrote the most copious and 



MAJOR THEODORE WINTHROP. 

gayest letters from the camp. He was thoroughly aroused, and all his 
powers happily at play. In a letter to me soon after his arrival in 
Washington, he says, — 

" I see no present end of this business. We must conquer the 
South. Afterwards we must be prepared to do its police in its own 
behalf, and in behalf of its black population, whom this war must, with- 
out precipitation, emancipate. We must hold the South as the Metro- 
politan Police holds New York. All this is inevitable. Now I wish 
to enroll myself at once in the Police of the Nation^ and for life, if the 
nation will take me. I do not see that I can put myself — ^experience 

and character — to any more useful use My experience in this 

short campaign with the Seventh assures me that volunteers are for 
one purpose and regular soldiers entirely another. We want regular 
soldiers for the cause of order in these anarchical countries, and we 
want men in command who, though they may be valuable as temporary 
satraps or proconsuls to make liberty possible where it is now impos- 
sible, will never under any circumstances be disloyal to Liberty, will 
always oppose any scheme of any one to constitute a military govern- 
ment, and will be ready, when the time comes, to imitate Washington. 

We must think of these things, and prepare for them Love to 

all the dear friends This trip has been all a lark to an old 

tramper like myself" 

Later he writes, — ■ 

"It is the loveliest day of fullest spring. An aspen under the 
window whispers to me in a chorus of all its leaves, and when I look 
out, every leaf turns a sunbeam at me. I am writing in Viele's cjuar- 
ters in the villa of Somebody Stone, upon whose place or farm we 
are encamped. The man who built and set down these four great 



MAJOR THKODORK WINTHROP. 

granite pillars in front of his house, for a carriage-porch, had an eye 
or two for a fine site. This seems to be the finest possible about 
Washington. It is a terrace called Meridian Hill, two miles north of 
Pennsylvania Avenue. The house commands the vista of the Potomac, 
all the plain of the city, and a charming lawn of delicious green, with 
oaks of the first dignity just coming into leaf It is lovely Nature, 
and the spot has snatched a grace from Art. The grounds are laid 
out at^ter a fashion, and planted with shrubljery. The snowballs are 

at their snowballiest Have you heard or — how many times have 

you used the simile of some one. Bad-muss or Cadmus, or another hero, 
who sowed the dragon's teeth, and they came up dragoons a hundred- 
ibld and infantry a thousand-fold"? Nil adinirarl is, of course, my 
frame of mind ; but I own astonishment at the crop of soldiers. They 
nmst ripen awhile, perhaps, before they are to be named quite soldiers. 
Ripening takes care of itself; and by the harvest-time they will be 
ready to cut down. 

" I find that the men best informed about the South do not antici- 
pate much severe fighting. Scott's Fabian policy will demoralize their 
armies. If the people do not bother the great Cunctator to death 
before he is ready to move to assured victory, he will make defeat 
impossible. Meanwhile there will be enough outwork going on, like 

those neat jobs in Missouri, to keep us all interested Know, 

comrade, that I am already a corporal, — an acting corporal, selected 
l)y our commanding officer for my general effect of pipe-clay, my rapid- 
ity of heel and toe, my present arras, etc., but liable to be ousted by 
suffrage any moment. Quod fausium sit, .... I had already been 

introduced to the Secretary of War I called at 's and saw, 

with two or three others, on the sofa. Him ni}- prophetic soul 



MAJOR THEODORE WINTHROP. 

named my uncle to be But in my uncle's house are many 

nephews, and whether nepotism or my transcendent merit will prevail 
we shall see. I have fun, — I get experience, — I see much, — it pays. 
Ah, yes! But in these fair days of May I miss my Staten Island. War 
stirs the pulse, but it wounds a little all the time. 

"Compliment for me Tib [a little dog] and the Wisterias, — also 

the mares and the billiard-table. Ask to give you t'other lump 

of sugar in ray behalf .... Should return, say that I regret 

not being present with an unpremeditated compliment, as thus, — ' Ah ! 
the first rose of summer!' .... I will try to get an enemy's button 

for ■ , should the enemy attack. If the Seventh returns presently, 

I am afraid I shall be obliged to return with them for a time. But I 
mean to see this job through, somehow." 

In such an airy, sportive vein he wrote, with the firm purpose 
and the distinct thought visible under the sparkle. Before the regi- 
ment left Washington, as he has recorded, he said good-by and went 
down the l^ay to Fortress Monroe. Of his unshrinking and sprightly 
industry, his good head, his warm heart, and cool hand, as a soldier, 
General Butler has given precious testimony to his family. " I loved 
him as a brother," the general writes of his young aid. 

The last days of his life, at Fortress Monroe were doubtless also 
the happiest. His energy and enthusiasm, and kind, winning ways, 
and the deep satisfaction of feeling that all his gifts could now be 
used as he would have them, showed him and his friends that his 
day had at length dawned. He was especially interested in . the con- 
dition and fiite of the slaves who escaped from the neighboring region 
and sought refuge at the fort. He had never for an instant forgotten 
the secret root of the treason which was desolating the land with war ; 



MA, I OK Til KO DORK VVJNTIIKOI'. 

Mild ill Ills view llicrc would In; no jx'iicc until tliiii voni. was destroyed. 
Ill liis letters written IVDin tin; I'ort, he suggests plans of reliel" :ind 
coinl'ort lor llie rel'n^^ees; and one of his last requests was to a lady 
in New ^'()l•k, Inr clothes I'or these poor pensioners. They were 
]>roni]itly sent, Init- reiielied the I'ort too Inte. 

y\s I look over these hist letters, wliieh iz;ush and tlirob with tlie 
fulness of his activitv, and an; so tenderly streaked wilh louehes of 
constant- all'eetioii iiiid reiiicnihranco, yet are so eiilni and duly mindful 
of every detiiil, 1 do not think with iin cldrr friend, in wlioiii the 
wisdom of yeiirs has oiil\' drciinied sympathy for all ^■enerous youthful 
impulse, of Virjj:irs Miircelliis, "lieu, iiiiserande piier!" hut I recall 
rather, still hiiiintcd hy I'hilip Sidney, what he wrote, just licfore his 
dc;ilh, to his liithcr in l:iw, Walsinghaiii, — "1 think a wise mid constant 
ni.'iii oULjht never to "'rieve while he doth phiy, as a, man iii;iy siiy, his 
own part truly." 

The sketches of the c;imii;iii;n in N'ir^'iniii, which W iiithro]) had 
(•(mimcnccd in the ;\tl;intic .Monthly, would liiive lieeii contiiiued, and 
have forme(l an iiiv:dual)le iiKunoir of the jjImccs, the men, and the 
operations of which he was a witness and a part. As a, piece of vivid 
pictorial description, which ^nv.es the spirit as well as the spectacle, 
his "Washing-Ion as a. ("amp" is masterly. lie knew not only what to 
sec luul to describe, liiit what to think; so that in his papers you are 
not at \]u) inercv of a multitudinous mass of facts, hut understand their 
\alnc and relation. Immediately ii])oii his arri\al at {''ort Monroe lu; 
hail commeiiced a third article. 

TIk' disaslrous day of the lOlh of June, at (Ireai H(»thel, need not 
lie descrihed here, ll is already written with tears and \ain regrets 
in our hislorv. it is useless to proloiiij- the deliate as to where the 



MAJOR TIIKODOKK \V 1 N T 11 lU) 1'. 

hliiinc of the defeat, if blame thoro wcro, slioiiM rest. I5iit there is 
nil impression somewhat prevalent that Wiiilhnip plaiiiicd the expo- 
ilitiiiii, which is iiicdrrect. As luilitiiiy secretary of the c(>mmalHlill^■ 
general, lu; miule a memorandiim of the outline of the pliin as it had 
been iinally settled. Precisely what that memoniiidum (which liiis been 
published) was he explains in the last letter he wrote, a few hours 
Ix'foi'o lenviiii;- the fort. Ih; says, — "If I come liack safe, 1 will send 
you my notes of the phin of atJack", pai't made up IVoni the (leiierars 
hints, part my own iMiicies." This delines exnclly his re^ponsibility. 
His position as jiid mid militMry secretary, his admirable ((iialities as 
adviser under the cii-cnmstauces, and his persoiiid fiieiidshii) for the 
General, brought him intimately into the council of war. He embarked 
in the ])liin all the interest of a brave soldier coutcm])lating his first 
battle, lie probal)ly made suggestions, some of wiiieh were adopted. 
The expedition was the lirst move from I''ort, Monroe, to whicii llu^ 
country had been long looking in expectation. These were the reasons 
why he felt so peculiar a responsibility for its success; and after the 
melancholy events of the earlier part, of the day, he saw that its fortunes 
could be retri(!ved only by a, dash of heroic enthusiasm. I^'ired him- 
self, he sought to kindle othens. Kor one moment that brave, iiis[)iriiig 
form is ])laiuly visibh; to his whole country, I'apt and calm, standing 
iijioii the log nearest the enemy's battery, the mark of their sharp- 
shooters, th(> admiration of their leaders, waving his sword, cheering 
his fellow-soldiers with his bugle voice of victory, — young, brave, 
beautiful, for one moment erect and glowing in the wild whirl of battle, 
the next falling forward toward the foe, dead, l)ut triumphant. 

On the liHh ol' April he left the an y-door of the Seventh, with 

his hand u|)oii a howitzer; — on tlu^ 'Jlst of .lune his body lay upon 



MAJOR THEODORE AV I X T H R O P . 

the same howitzer at the same door, wrapped in the flag for which he 
gladly died, as the symbol of human freedom. And so, drawn by tlie 
hands of young men lately strangers to him, but of whose bravery and 
loyalty he had been the laureate, and who fitly mourned him who had 
honored tlieni, with long, pealing dirges and inniBed drums, he moved 
forward. 

Yet such was the electric vitality of this friend of ours, that those 
of us who fullowed him could only think of him as approving the 
funeral pageant, not the object of it, but still the spectator and critic 
of every scene in which he was a part. We did not think of him as 
dead. We never shall. In the moist, warm midsummer morning, he 
was alert, alive, immortal. 



GREBLE. 




< — '^ - ^^^ii-li^^ 



LIEUTENANT JOHN T. GREBLE, U.S.A. 

KILLED AT GREAT BETHEL, June 10, 1861 



The regular service, on the fatal tenth of June, lost an officer enjoy- 
ing the highest credit, and one whom the city of Philadelphia will long 
remember with pride. John Trout Greble, first lieutenant in the Second 
Artillery, was descended both on the paternal and maternal side from 
the oldest of the families in the city. In the Revolutionary War, some 
of these families furnished brave hearts and ready hands to build up 
that noble government, to defend which from unnatural, because domes- 
tic, enemies their illustrious descendant ventured so boldly, and so glori- 
ously lost his life. 

The first of his ancestors, on the father s side, who came to America, 
Andrew Greble, was a native of Saxe Coburg Gotha, who settled in 
Philadelphia in 1742, and who, with his five sons, served in the army of 
the Revolution, sharing in the toils and the glories of Monmouth and 
Princeton. On his mother's side, he was descended from the Jones, a 
Welsh family which emigrated to Philadelphia from Barlsadoes, as early 
as 1689, and this family, though members of the Society of Friends, 
sent to the army of freedom Abraham Jones, the great-grandfather 
of young Greble. 



LIEUTENANT JOHN T. GREBLE. 

John Trout Greble w;i8 Ijorii in Philadelphia, on the 19th day of 
January, 1834. From boyhood John had been remarkable for the 
innocence and purity of life, an almost feminine character, blended, 
however, ^Yith great firmness and courage, not the result of a robust, 
physical constitution, Imt springing from the action of principle and 
honor. Corresponding to the early training in his fixmily, he won the 
attachment of all with whom he came in contact. After passing with 
credit through the rec[uisite preliminary studies at the Ringgold Gram- 
mar School, he, at the age of twelve, entered the Central High School, 
where he graduated four years later, with the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts. He had already decided on his career, and ol)tained, in 1850, 
his appointment as a cadet at West Point. Here his life was a fitting 
sequel to that spent under his father's I'oof. He won alike the resj^ect 
of his fellow-students and the approval of his pi'ofessors, and on the 1st 
of July, 1854, graduated high in his class. As he had availed himself 
of the government school to serve his country and not his private ends, 
he entered the army at once, being commissioned brevet second lieuten- 
ant in the Second Artillery, then stationed at Newport Barracks. In 
September, he was made second lieutenant, and went to Tampa, Florida, 
where he served with his regiment for two yeans, taking an active part 
in the operations of the last Indian troubles caused by Billv Bowlegs, 
who, struck l)y the young lieutenant's merit, jjroraised befoi-e the war 
to kill him himself in action, so that he should die nobly Ijy the hand 
of a great chief Lieutenant Greble escaped unhurt, however ; but the 
duties in which he was engaged at Fort Myers, and in the Hills- 
borough and Big Cypress Swamps, brought on a fever, from which he 
never completely recovered. In consequence of this, he came to the 
North, on sick leave, but early in the year 1856 returned to Florida 



LIEUTENANT JOJIN T. GREBLE. 

«-ith recruits, and resumed active service, discharging for a time the 
duties of quartermaster and commissary, till December, 1856. He was 
then appointed acting assistant professor of Ethics at the Military Acad- 
emy, and held that position till October, 1860, having in the mean 
time been promoted to a first lieutenancy on the 3d of March 1857 
The duties of a professor of Ethics might appear more nominal than 
real to those who are not informed that, in the Military Academy the 
professors of Ethics give instruction in English Grammar, Geography 
History, Rhetoric, Elocution, International and Constitutional lL the 
Constitution of the United States, and Logic. Professor Greble' pre- 
pared himself carefully for the instruction which he gave on Inter- 
national and Constitutional Law, and on that glorious Constitution in 
defence of which he was to lay down his life. 

In October, 1860, Lieutenant Greble, who had repeatedly solicited 
active service, was ordered to Fortress Monroe, and was one of the 
handful of gallant men who preserved that important post to the 
country, when, but for the respect inspired by Colonel Dimmick and 
his httle band of three hundred, the rebels might at any moment have 
taken it. The force was totally inadequate to man a mile and a halt 
of ramparts; but they were loyal men, and the forts over which the 
rebel flag floats have been taken only by treachery or starvation. 

On the 26th of May, Lieutenant Greble was sent to Newport News 
as master of ordnance, having under him, however, only twenty reo-u- 
lars, with a sergeant and corporal. The following letter, written from 
this post the day before his death, will give an insight into his char- 
acter, as well as show his duties there : 



« 



I 



LIEUTENANT JOHN T. CiREBLE. 

Camp Bitleu, Newpout News, ViiioiNiA, 
Sun-DAT, June 9, 1861. 

It is a deliglitful Sabbath morning — it has a Sabbath feeling about 
it. If you had lost the run of the week, such a day as to-day would 
tell you it was the Sabbath. The camp is unusually quiet, and its 
stillness broken Ijy little except the organ tones of some of the Massa- 
chusetts men, who are on the beach singing devotional airs. Last 
Sabbath the men were at work in the . trenches, to-day is their first 
day of rest. A great deal of work has been done, and during the last 
week under unfavorable' circumstances — rainy days. \\'\{\\ very little 
more lal)or our whole line of intrenchments will be finished. There 
is a little trimming off' to be done, and a magazine to be built, a little 
earth to be thrown up in front of some heavy columbiads that have 
been mounted, and some storehouses to be built, Ijut enough has been 
done to allow the rest to be completed by general details, and to 
give a chance for drilling. Colonel Phelps has appointed me ordnance 
officer of the post. We do not now fear any attack ; the position is 
too strong. I hear that Davis has given the Federal troops ten days' 
time in which to leave the soil of Virginia. The time is nearly up, 
but we are not quite ready to move away. 

I hope that I may be given courage and good judgment enough 

to do well my duty under any circumstances in which I may Ite i)laced. 

As far as I can see, there is not much danger to be incurred in this 

campaign. At present, both sides seem better inclined to talking than 

fighting. If talking could settle it, by giving the supremacy forever 

to the general government, I think it would be better than civil war; 

but that talking can settle it, I do not believe. 

****** 

John T. Greble. 



LIEUTENANT JOHN T. (JREBLE. 

His duties at Newport News, whore he was the only regular officer, 
were highly importaut. To him the three thousand volunteers looked 
up for real guidance and direction. Besides the superintending of the 
works here mentioned, he was busily engaged in instructing the volun- 
teer officers and men in the management and handling of the artillery, 
a most essential point, as, in case of a sudden attack, there would other- 
wise have been none able to man the guns. 

As is evident from the last letter, Lieutenant Greble had no antici- 
pation of being immediately called into action. As ordnance officer 
of the post his position was at Newport News, and General Butler, in 
planning the expedition of which we are about to speak, did not intend 
that he should form a part of it. But while Lieutenant Greble saw 
no reason for jin advance, and naught to induce him to suppose any then 
projected, other counsels had prevailed at Fortress Monroe. An expe- 
dition had really been planned in which Lieutenant Greble was to bear 
an important part, and by sacrificing his life, save the American forces, 
in their retreat and confusion, from severe loss, a terrible rout, and, as 
officers of ability declare, not improbably almost total annihilation. 

After Lieutenant Greble had dispatched his last letter, orders 
reached his commander at Newport News requiring him to detail a 
portion of his forces to join a body of troops sent on from Fortress 
Monroe, and to march at midnight to surprise the rebels who were 
stationed at Little Bethel, and then push on to Great Bethel Church, 
near County Creek, where they were supposed to be in force, and carry 
the works erected there. 

Colonel Phelps thus suddenly called upon, detailed Lieutenant Greble 
to command the artillery. He obeyed with the alacrity of a thorough 
soldier, and prepared to march, but the moment that he heard the plan. 



LIEUTENANT JOHN T. (TREBLE. 

his iK'tter judgment coiKleuiiied it, and he reniariced to a brother officer, 
— " This is an ill-advised and badly arranged movement. I -am afraid 
no good will come of it; and as for myself, T do not think I shall i;ome 
oft" the field alive." At midnight Lieutenant Greljle left Newport News 
with two pieces of artillery, small six-pounders; but so inadequate 
were the prei^arations, that no animals could be found to draw the 
guns, and after considerable difficulty, he secured two mules to draw 
oije, and a hundred men were detailed to draw the other. At mid- 
night he started, with eleven artillerymen of the regular service, and 
was in the advance about two miles, with one gun, when he heard 
firing in the rear. Borrowing a horse, he galloped back, and to his 
grief and astonishment found his second gun firing on a Brooklyn 
regiment, Avhich, I'rom a neglect on the part of the commander to give 
the men from different points some means of recognizing each other, 
Colonel Bendix's men had mistaken for the enemy. Greble at once 
ordered the firing to cease, and as he saw the dead and wounded lying 
around, exclaimed that he would rather have laid down his own life 
than have such a disaster and disgrace beliiU our arms. 

The result of this fatal error is well known. The enemy were 
notified of the apprf)ach of the American troops, and hastily retiring 
from Little Bethel, which it was intended to surprise, prepared for a 
vigorous defence of fheir works at County Creek. As soon as order 
was restored, Lieutenant Greble returned to his gun, which was in ad- 
vance, with Duryea's Zouaves. 

On arriving in sight of the enemies' works, he planted his howit- 
zers in the road, and opened his fire, aiming the cannon himself, and 
remaining as cool as on parade. In this way he advanced till within 
one hundred vards of the works. The balls from the enemy's in- 



LIEUTENANT JOHN T. GREBLE. 

trciK'lierl battery poured around him, but he refused to dodge them, 
as others did. He was soon left on the road, with his command of 
eleven men, the volunteers having retreated from the exposed posi- 
tion, but he stood his ground till he silenced all their guns but one. 
For two hours he kept up his fire, and when the enemy made a 
sortie, drove them back with a shower of grape. The officers near 
him begged him to dodge or retreat. He replied, "I never dodge; 
and when I hear the notes of the bugle calling a retreat, I shall retreat, 
and not before." Five of his men now alone remained; and as it was 
evident that no command existed on the field, he ordered Corporal 
Peoples to limber up the gun, and take it away. At that moment a 
shot struck him on the right temple, and he fell, exclaiming, " my 
God!" 

Thus, in an ill-managed expedition, the country lost Lieutenant 
Greble. As an officer, he bore the highest character. He was every 
inch a thorough-l)red American soldier, — skilled, brave, active, and 
efficient. In private life, a gii'ted and accomplished gentleman, a 
Christian by profession, and still more by practice, living up to the 
truth he saw, and the duties it inculcated, thus affording a beautiful 
example to young officers, who are too often deluded by the mistaken 
idea that there is something incompatible between honest manly piety 
and religion, and the character of a soldier. Greble was a type of 
cool bravery, of exact discipline, of mild and gentle manners, and of 
practical religion. 

In his pocket was found a paper scrawled evidently on the field, 
and bearing these words, addressed to his wife, the daughter of his 
senior professor at West Point, the Rev. John W. French : 

•'May God bless you, my darling, and grant you a happy and peace- 



LIEUTENANT JOHN T. GREBLE. 

ful life. May the good Father protect you and ine, and grant that we 
may live happily together long lives. God give me strength, wisdom, 
and courage. It' I die, let me die as a brave and honorable man; 
let no stain of dishonor hang over me or you. Devotedly, and with 
my whole heart, your husband." 

His body was borne from the field by Duryea's Zouaves, and con- 
veyed to his native city, with every military honor. In Philadel- 
phia, his body lay in state in Independence Hall, and on the 14tli of 
June, after being visited Vjy thousands, was borne through Chestnut, 
Seventh, and Walnut Streets, to his father's residence, escorted by 
Captain Starr's company of militia, and followed by officers of the 
army and navy, the city authorities, the pupils of the High School, 
and a large body of military. His body was conveyed to Woodland 
Cemetery, where his father-in-law. Rev. J. W. French, read the final 
service, and amid the rattle of musketry, his remains were committed 
to their repose. 

The city of Philadelphia is justly proud of her gallant son ; and a 
portrait, painted by Marchant, has Ijeen presented to the city author- 
ities, that his memory may be a stinmlus and a guide to the rising 
young of the city and State. 

At his funei'al, the Rev. Dr. Brainard, who had known him from 
childhood, thus summed uj) his character: 

" Few have passed to the grave whose whole life could better bear 
inspection, or who presented fewer defects over which we have need 
to throw the mantle of charity. In his family circle, in the Sabbath- 
school, in the High-school where he graduated, as a cadet at West 
Point, and as an officer in the service of his countiy, up to the very 
hour when he bravely I'ell, he has exhibited a life marked by the purest 



LIEUTENANT JOHN T. GREBLE. 

principles, and the most guarded and exemplary deportment. In his 
nature he was modest, retiring, gentle, of almost feminine delicacy, 
careful to avoid wounding the feelings of any, and considerate of every 
obligation to all around him. Indeed, such was his amiability, modesty, 
and delicacy of temperament, that we might almost have questioned 
the existence in him of the sterner virtues, had not his true and un- 
shrinking courage in the hour of danger stamped him with an heroic 
manliness. In this view of qualities, seemingly antithetical, we discover 
that beautiful symmetry in his character which marks liim as a model 
man of his class." 



W A R D . 




^ifc" 




vc^ ^( 



JAMES HAHMAN WARD, U. S. N^ 



KILLED IN THE ATTACK ON MATHIAS POINT, June 27, 1861. 



It was a most severe loss to our service when an officer so superior 
in all the science and practice of his profession as Captain Ward, fell, 
not on the element where our navy rides, and where he was so com- 
petent to lead a fleet to battle, but on a petty steamer on a narrow 
river. A precious life was uselessly wasted: an arm of the service 
deprived of a man whose equal could only be made in years of expe- 
rience turned to profit by observation and study. 

James Harman Ward was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1806. 
His father. Colonel James Ward, a prominent citizen, was commissary- 
general of the State during the war of 1812, and during a long life 
enjoyed the highest esteem and respect. James Harman, his son, was 
educated at the Vermont Military Academy, an able institution founded 
at Norwich, Vermont, in 1820, by Captain Alden Partridge, and since 
become the Norwich University. Here he received a good primary 
training for the service which he had chosen, — lectures on military 
subjects, especially gunnery, being frequent and copious; and this he 
always considered to have been an inestimable advantage, " because 
more familiar knowledge is talked into youths than they can acquire 



CAPTAIN JAMES ITARMAN WARD. 

in any other way. Study and recitation alone, without oral instruc- 
tion, are insufficient." From this academy, then justly a jaopular in- 
stitution with the more cultivated gentlemen of the country as a school 
of training for their sons, young Ward passed for a time to Trinity 
College, Hartford. 

On the 4th of March, 1823, he entered the navy as a midshipman, 
on board of the. Constitution, then commanded by the modest, religious 
McDonough, the hero of Lake Cham})lain. To that great man he was 
ever devotedly attached, and in one of his treatises shows how keenly 
he felt the singular discourtesy shown to him by hauling down his broad 
pennant, in the Mediterranean, in 1825, — an affront to his revered com- 
mander which the young officer never forgot. From the moment Ward 
entered the navy, he made it his profession for life, and he devoted 
himself earnestly to acquire all knowledge necessary to fit him for 
advancement to its highest honors. He sought no laurels but those 
to be won in the Naval Service ; and his works, which give him high 
rank among professional writers, show how aljsolutely he renounced 
all that could wean him from it. He saw with regret many, devoting 
their talent to less severe and more remunerative study and work, at 
last leave the service, after having acquired a distaste for the sea and 
the navy. In his own person he united, as he in later days earnestly 
called upon the young officers to unite, intellectual cleverness with the 
practical accomplishments of the trained, prompt, bold, and confident 
seaman. He accepted all orders, shirked no duty, preserving true self- 
respect by rather suffering than practising injustice in the matter of 
promotion. 

Passing through the regular steps, he was made a lieutenant on the 
3d of March, 1831, and was attached to the Mediterranean squadron. 



CAPTAIN JAMES HARMAN WARD. 

From this time he was constantly in service of the most varied and 
laborious character, in every class of vessel. He was many years on 
the coast of Africa ; and while on that station, in command of a cor- 
vette, compiled his Manual of Naval Tactics, undertaken to furnish 
younger otficers elementary aid to the great work of Father Paul Iloste, 
the standard author on the subject, whose difficulty, however, often 
makes him repulsive. This work was not published till 1858, and was 
then extremely well received by the naval authorities, as eminently 
suited to the purpose of an elementary manual. It will be of service 
no less to the historical scholar, from its examination of some of the 
naval battles and operations in our own annals, especially the battles 
of Lake Champlain and Lake Erie, in which, as a scientific man, he 
defended the plans of McDonough and Perry. He delivered in 1842 and 
1843 a course of lectures on gunnery in Philadelphia, which attracted 
considerable attention. But his great object at this period was to in- 
duce the government to establish a Navy School, which should l)e for 
his arm of the service what West Point is for the army. He was inde- 
fatigable in impressing on all who could influence the result the advan- 
tages, and, in fact, necessity, of such an institution. Fortunately for the 
efficiency of our navy, now supplied with regular classes of well-edu- 
cated young officers, his labors were successful. When it opened, he 
was appointed one of the professors, and lectured on gunnery. Here 
his elementary turn, and his peculiar manner of explanation, rendered 
him of the utmost service to naval cadets. The subject of his lectures 
he subsequently published in 1845, under the title of "Elementary 
Instruction on Naval Ordnance and Gunnery." This work, one of the 
first scientific works written l:)y any of our navy officers, led to beneficial 
changes, and exercised a happy influence on the service. After leaving 



CAPTAIX JAMES HARMAX WARD. 

the academy, he watched its progress with great interest, and his views 
in regard to its efficiency seem most wise. He believed that officers 
drawn from active service should be connected with it, and not left 
too long, for fear of their losing the true spirit of the navy. During 
the Mexican war, which soon followed, he was attached to the Gulf 
fleet, and nearly lost his life in the operations at Tuspan. 

At an early period after the introduction of steam into the navy, 
he turned his attention to it, and with his habitual .spirit studied the 
whole subject thoroughly. To present the knowledge he had thus 
acquired in a comprehensible form, he suljsequently wrote his "Steam 
for the Million" (Van Nostrand, New York, 1860). In 1849, he com- 
manded the United States steamer Vixen, in the Gulf of Mexico, and 
then, and subsequently, was enabled to appreciate and examine the 
various problems presented by this new element in naval warflire, — 
thus far without any great operations from which to study its results. 

He was made a commander in 1853; and being in England at the 
close of the Crimean war, when the queen reviewed the Spithead fleet, 
he was gratified to have a most accomplished captain in the royal navy 
point out his vessel as a model of order, cleanlines.s, tone, discipline, 
and higli ti-aining, which even British officers might study with profit. 
In 1857, he was appointed to the command of the receiving ship North 
Carolina, lying at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, — a command of a kind 
having its own peculiar difficulties, calling for such sufficient sway over 
men in large bodies as restrains them under the temptations .special 
to a receiving-ship, — a talent to be cultivated, a science to be studied, 
as on it, anywhere, harmonious discipline and true military strength 
largely depend. 

His al)ility as a scientific naval officer was now recognized at home 



CAPTAIN JAMES HARMAN WARD. 

iiiid abroad. His correspondence with all engaged in similar studies 
was very extensive, and he was consulted with the utmost confidence. 
Sir Howard Douglas, like himself a master of the art of gunnery, Avas 
one of his warm friends and correspondents. 

When the treachery of the members of the late cabinet had fur- 
nished the secession conspirators with arras and all the material of war, 
and the Gulf States, confident in their power, openly set up an inde- 
jiendent government. Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens alone escaped the 
grasp of treason. The relief of Fort Sumter became the great object 
of the new administration. The known ability and science of Captain 
Ward caused him to be at once summoned to Washington, to aid them 
by his counsels. He was retained at Washington, and organized the 
Potomac flotilla, to the command of which he was appointed on the 
16th of May, 1861, the Freeborn being the vessel under his immediate 
charge. 

The rebels began thi'owing up batteries along the bank of the 
river, which was in their guilty hands. Ward at once formed a plan 
of operations, unfortunately not adopted by those in power. On the 
20th of May he captured, about ten miles below Fort Washington, two 
schooners loaded with rebel soldiers, and actively proceeded to clear 
the river. Ten days after, he reconnoitred Mathias Point, landing in 
person with a small party, and satisfying himself that no fortifications 
had been begun there. On the 31st, with the Freeborn, supported by 
the Anacosta and Resolute, he cannonaded the rebel battei'ies at Acquia 
Creek, until he silenced the three batteries at the railroad terminus, and 
drew off only when his ammunition was exhausted, and shot poured like 
hail from batteries on the heights, above the reach of his guns. During 
the ensuing night the enemy repaired their works, and brought down 



CAPTAIN JAMES HARM AN WARD. 

the guns from the heights. In the morning Ward, aided l)y the Pawnee, 
again opened on them, and kept up a rapid fire till the raih-oad build- 
ings were destroyed, and the guns silenced. During the months of 
June and July, Captain Ward was constantly on the move, and on the 
26th of July he discovered indications of a movement for the erection 
of a batterer at Mathias Point by the rebels, and sent to the Pawnee for 
two boats' crews to land and throw up breastworks. Men were landed 
the next day, and a sand-bag breastwork thrown up Ijefore evening. 
When all was ready, the men returned to their ))oats to go on board 
for guns to mount on the work, when the rebels, ambushed in the 
bushes that skirted the shore, suddenly poured in a destructive fire of 
musketry. The crews immediately made for the steamer, the Freeborn 
covering their retreat by an active fire, throwing shell with great pre- 
cision. Captain Ward stood coolly by his gun, directing its fire, and 
when his gunner was wounded took his place. As he was sighting the 
gun, a minie ball struck him, inflicting a mortal wound, of which he 
expired in about an hour. 

His body was carried to the Navy Yard at Washington, and on 
Saturday conveyed with due honor to the depot, on its way to New 
York. It was received and laid in state on the North Carolina, where 
he had been so recently the esteemed commander. Death had not 
changed his honest, open, yet determined look ; and his many friends 
came to pay the last visit of respect to a brave and accomplished friend. 
The funeral services of the Catholic rite were performed by the Bishop 
of Hartford. The body was then taken to the steamer Granite State, 
which bore it to Hartford. There the city prepared to honor its gal- 
lant son. On the day of the funeral, the stores were closed, the bells 
tolled, and after an imposing service in the cathedral, where the Rev. 



CAPTAIN JAMES HARMAN WARD. 

Bernard O'Reilly, of the Society of Jesus, a personal friend of the 
departed, made a most touching address, the body was borne through 
the silent streets, followed by the civic authorities and the military of 
the city, to his final resting-place, beside his parents. 

In addition to the works which we have had occasion to mention, 
Captain Ward drew up a set of rules and regulations for the govern- 
ment of a ship, which are deemed models, as succinct, clear, and intelli- 
gible. Many have adopted them without alteration, and they will prob- 
ably be printed. His order-book is also highly spoken of He also 
invented an improved gun-carriage, and projected other improvements, 
— his ever active mind studying deeply every branch of science or me- 
chanics having any bearing on his profession. In religion he examined 
as thoroughly ; and as a result of his investigations entered the Catholic 
Church, practising all its required duties with that manliness and true 
nobility which were so strikingly characteristic of this noble son of 
Connecticut. That State, rich in historic glories of the past, may now 
point with j^ride to the honored graves of Lyon and Ward, her last 
noljle victims on the altar of nationality. 



F A R N H A M . 



COLONEL lOAH L. FARNHAM, N.Y.V. 

MORTALLY WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN, July 21, 1861. 



Noah Lane Farnham, the second colonel of the New York Fire 
Zouaves, elected after the murder of Ellsworth, his friend and associate, 
was not unworthy of the command, and by his intrepidity in his first 
engagement sacrificed his life. He was a native of Connecticut, having 
been born at Haddam, June 6, 1829, but was brought up in the city 
of New York, to which his family removed in 1833. His later studios 
were, however, pursued in New Haven ; and on returning to New York 
at the ao-e of eighteen, he became a member of the City Guard, and 
was on active duty at the time of the Astor Place Riot, caused by the 
rivalry between Forrest and Macready. The militia did not, however, 
afford suflicient exercise for his adventurous spirit. He joined the Fire 
Department, being first associated with Fire Engine Company No. 42, 
and afterwards with Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, being for a 
time foreman of the latter. In 1856, he was elected assistant engineer 
of the Fire Department, and for three years discharged its duties in a 
most creditable manner, meeting with the approbation of the depart- 
ment and the public. His military taste had not, however, left him ; 
and, after acting as a volunteer private in the Seventh Regiment, he 



COLONEL NOAH L. FA EX HAM. 

entered it in 1857, and was elected second sergeant while still a recruit. 
When the summons came for troops to defend our " Eternal City" from 
the fierce southron hordes sweeping up for its destruction, he was 
first lieutenant in company B, commanded by Captain Shaler. 

As a member of the Seventh, he had made the acquaintance of 
Ellsworth, his company having escorted the Zouaves to West Point, 
where both companies were reviewed by Jefferson Davis and Colonel 
Hardee, neither supposing that the day was so near at hand when 
they should fall among the earliest victims to a civil war, roused by 
the fell ambition and treachery of the men who stood before them, 
with traitor hearts beating beneath the glorious uniibrm they disgraced. 
Farnham entered into all Ellsworth's plans, and even formed a project 
of another Zouave organization. 

When Ellsworth came to Ncav York to form his regiment of Fire 
Zouaves, he earnestly pressed Farnham to accept the lieutenant- 
colonelcy, but Farnham was loth to leave the Seventh, and proceeded 
with it to the seat of war. 

The Seventh left its armory on the 19tli of April, and proceeded 
amid the densely crowded streets of New York to the Jersey City 
Ferry, a triumph in advance, and impressing on all that war was really 
begun, by the firm, thoughtful look of the men. Colonel Marshall 
Lefferts, with his regiment, numbering nearly a thousand, including 
Winthrop, Farnham, Alden, already numbered with the glorious dead, 
proceeded to Philadelphia by rail ; but deeming it wiser to avoid Balti- 
more, and any delay they would certainly experience there, embarked 
on the steamer Boston, on the afternoon of the 20th, and, before his 
men were aware of their destination, came in sight of Annapolis, just 
in time to relieve the Eighth Massachusetts, which, taking the .same 



COLONEL NOAH L. KARNHAM. 

route had had their steamer Constitution run aground by a treacherous 
captain. After resting at Annapolis, repairing the locomotives wh.ch 
had been taken apart by the treachery of their enemies, the two 
American regiments began their march to Washington, on the radroad 
track, repairing, as they went along, the destruction which the frant.c 
sons of Maryland committed on their public works. 

Their entry into the capital of the Union was a triumph. The 
Seventh Regiment was quartered in the Capitol, were sworn in, and 
soon began the active life of drill and exercise. 

Lieutenant Farnham was indefatigable in his duties; but when 
Ellsworth arrived with his regiment, and again tendered him the rank 
of lieutenant-colonel, he at last yielded, to the great satisfaction o 
Ellsworth, and the delight of the men to whom he was so well and 
so favorably known. We have already followed the march of the 
regiment to Alexandria, where Colonel Ellsworth was murdered so 
baLly On that sad event, Farnham was elected colonel, and dis- 
charged its duties with great fidelity and untiring zeal. His health 
though vigorous, became impaired, and when the regiment received 
its orders to move on Manassas, he was actually confined to his bed 
with illness. Yet he rose from his sick-bed to put himself at the 
head of his regiment, which left Fort Ellsworth, and forming part ot 
Heintzelman s Division, crossed Bull Run by the fords at Sudley 
Church Here Rickett's battery, posted on a hill, was disabled by a 
heavy fire of musketry, and Heintzelman ordering the Zouaves forward 
to support it, led them on against an Alabama regiment, partly con- 
cealed in a clump of pines in an old field. They rushed forward 
.allantly, but being charged at the same time by cavalry in the rear, 
Ly were thrown into confusion, and fell back Colonel Farnham, 



COLONEL NOAH L. FARXHAM. 

with Lieutenant-colonel Cregier and Major Loeser, were incessant in 
their exertions to rally the men, and received the unqualified praise 
of Colonel Ward, who commanded the brigade. In the confusion, 
however, few of the Zouaves remained together; most fought irreg- 
ularly, with other regiments. While endeavoring to bring them for- 
ward as a regiment, Farnham received a wound in the head, and his 
horse was shot under him, throwing him heavily to the ground. He 
was carried off the field by his men, but his previous illness, his wound 
and the bruises which he received, induced a brain fever, of which 
he died, on the 14th of August. His remains were brought to New 
York, and after appi-opriate funeral ceremonies, were carried to New 
Haven, where he lies interred. 



CAMERON. 



COLONEL JAMES CAMERON, N.Y.S.M, 



KILLED AT BULL RUN, July 21, 1861. 



Although falling in command of a regiment of New Yoi-k militia 
which had volunteered for the war, Colonel Cameron was really, in 
birth and life, a sou of Pennsylvania, who had found it impossible to 
decline the honor conferred on him by the city of New York, in proffer- 
ina- him the command of one of its finest regiments. 

Born at Maytown, Lancaster county, on the 1st of March, 1801, 
he thus, on his forty-seventh birthday, summarily reviewed his life : 
" This day, forty-six years ago, a child was born in a beautiful, obscure 
town in the interior of Pennsylvania, whose Christian name was James. 
This child has passed through most of the thorny thickets of life. He 
was a cow-boy, a plough-boy, a collier, a blacksmith, a tanner, a tailor, 
a printer, a brewer, a contractor, an alderman, a superintendent of 
railroads, a lawyer, a prosecuting attorney, an aid to the governor, — in 
short, almost every thing but a Christian, and that I might even add 
this to my biography some day, would not be a bit more strange than 
some things I have accomplished." 

Such was the varied and peculiarly American life of one destined 
to fall in the service of his country. His fother died at Lewisburg, in 



COLONEL JAIMRS f'AMERON. 

Union county, leaving his widow with no means of supiDort, and noth- 
ing to aid her in rearing a hxrge family of eight children. That, in 
spite of all these disadvantages, two of her friendless boys have linked 
their names so indissolulily with the history of their State and the 
Union redounds to her credit, and shows the depth and strength of the 
princijjles which she must have instilled into their minds. James chose 
the trade of a Ijlacksmith, and worked steadily at it till he was nineteen 
years of age, when he entered the printing-oflice of his brother Simon, 
at Ilarrisburg. After acquiring a knowledge of the typographic art, 
he rambled, as many young printers do, in search of work ; walked to 
Pittsburg, and then made his way to Philadelphia. His position as a 
printer led him, by an easy transition, to the establishment and man- 
agement of a paper, for which he was well fitted, — a singularly clear 
and sagacious mind, great memory, and solid reading compensating for 
the want of schooling, which the position of his mother in his early 
days precluded, for he was under a teacher for less than a year. 

The first paper which he conducted was the "Lycoming Gazette,'' 
at Williamsport, which came to his hands about 1824; but in 1827 he 
accepted an invitation to remove to Lancaster, and assume the direction 
of the "Political Sentinel.'' Here he became acquainted with, and in 
February, 1829, married Mrs. Rebecca Galbraith, widow of Doctor Gal- 
braith, and daughter of Jacob Lemon, Esq., who, after living in happi- 
ness with him for over a quarter of a century, now mourns his loss. 

While conducting the " Sentinel," he studied law in the office of 
the late President, James Buchanan, but when the anti-masonic excite- 
ment arose, he sold his paper, and leaving the field of politics for some 
years, employed his time in obtaining and carrying out contracts for 
the public works then in progress in Pennsylvania. 



COLONEL JAMES CAMERON. 

He readily, however, adapted himself to any business, as his brief 
summary of his career shows, turned his attention to several branches 
of trade and industry, and held pu'olic offices, which he discharged with 
fidelity, to the satisfaction of his fellow-citizens. 

During the Mexican War, he accompanied the volunteers of his 
State, as sutler, in January, 1847, and thus saw something of real army 
service. He was heartily in favor of the war, believing that it would 
tend to elevate Mexico ; but, unfortunately, that unhappy country is still 
a prey to faction and fraud, and some of our own public men learned 
too aptly the lessons of treachery, revolt, and revolution which Mexican 
history presents on every page, and are now enacting on our soil such 
scenes as have always excited our sympathy for our sister Republic. 
His mind was thus turned to military alfairs, to which he devoted con- 
siderable attention, and he was for many years colonel of a regiment 
iu the Pennsylvania militia. Of late years his health, tried by an over- 
active life, began to decline, and he was living in retirement, at a 
beautiful estate on the banks of the Susquehanna, when the Seventy- 
Ninth, or Highland Regiment of New York State Militia, anxious to 
be led by one of so historic a name as Cameron, warmly urged him to 
accept the colonelcy. The regiment, after many delays and obstacles, 
at last received orders to proceed to the seat of war. Two elegant 
flags were bestowed upon them by General Ewen and Mr. Cameron, 
and on the 2d of June they marched from Palace Garden, under 
Lieutenant-colonel Samuel Mackenzie Elliott, to the boat. Their fine 
appearance had already excited general enthusiasm, not only among 
those of Scotch birth and origin, but among all classes. As many of the 
soldiers had served in the British armies, had Ijoi-ne the heats of the 
Indian campaigns and the arduous duties of the Crimean war, all felt 



COLONEL JAMES CAMERON. 

coiilidcnt that tlie Scveiity-Nintli Highlanders of New York, in assuming 
the number and name of that noble corps in the British army, would 
not detract from its renown, l>ut would, on the contrary, make the New 
York Seventy-Ninth as famous as its transatlantic predecessor. 

Pressing on through Baltimore, reeking with the first blood of 
the loyal soldiery of America, the Seventy-Ninth reached Washington, 
and encamped at Georgetown College. The regiment had come 
witliout a colonel, ]\IcLeay having resigned previous to its departure, 
and it was already proposed to elect Mr. Cameron to the position. 
On the 18th of June a banquet was given to the officers of the 
regiment hj the St. Andrew's Society of Washington, and Cameron 
was toasted as colonel. In his response he corrected this, saying that 
he was not indeed then colonel, but having been notified of their 
willingness to confer that position on him, he intended to accejat it. 
lie referred to the evening of their meeting being the anniversary of 
the battle of Waterloo, where the British Seventy-Ninth played so 
distinguished a part. At Waterloo the Seventy-Ninth stood until 
almost the last man was cut down, and the bravery which animated 
these men in 1815, would be exhibited, he felt assured, by the Scotsmen 
of 1861, Avho had not degenerated one particle. 

Two days after, the officers, at an election held at headquarters, 
unanimously elected Cameron as colonel. Generals Ewen and San ford, 
of the New York State Militia, Ijcing present. On accepting the 
command of the regiment. Colonel Cameron said that he did not come 
to fight against the South, but against the foes of tlie Union. He 
knew no North, no South, no East, no West. 

The regiment soon after removed to Camp Lochiel, whence, on the 
7th of July, they marched over the aqueduct to the vicinity of Ball's 



COLONEL JAMES CAMERON. 

Cross Roads, where they encamped on a height approached by a road 
winding through a deep hollow. From his election, Colonel Cameron 
had devoted himself assiduously to the duties of his position, ably 
seconded by the capable and intelligent officers of his command. 

The American army were impatient to meet the enen>y : the people 
murmured at the delay: the term of the regiments called out by the 
President's proclamation, for three months, had nearly expired. It 
was resolved to advance in force on the enemy's lines. The army 
under the command of Brigadier-general Irwin McDowell accordingly 
advanced, the Seventy-Ninth in the first, Tyler's, Division having been 
assigned, with other gallant troops, to the brigade of General Sherman. 
In the reconnoissance in force made by General Tyler, on the 18th, to 
ascertain the position and strength of the enemy, the Seventy-Ninth 
were for a time under the enemy's fire. The First Massachusetts, 
the New York Twelfth Volunteers, and Second and Third Michigan 
were the reconnoitring force; but as they were hard pressed, other 
regiments were ordered up, and among them Colonel Cameron's. 
Meagher marked him as he swept past the Sixty-Ninth, and thus 
describes his appearance: "There was Colonel Cameron at the head 
of his Highlanders, riding erect and resolute, with his broad-leaied 
hat, shadowed with a superb black ostrich-feather, softening the outline 
of the strong massive features, which the consciousness of his being 
on a noble service seemed to illuminate." A true soldier, he rode 
conspicuous at the head of his men, for he knew well the effect of 
the courage shown on men going into the fray, and was not one to 
go to battle disguised in a slouched hat or an old gray coat to hide 

his uniform. 

The reconnoissance showed the rebels to be in too strong force at 



COLONEL JAMES C A M E RON. 

Blackburn's Ford to be easily disltxlgod from a position so well adapted 
for defence, by the natural formation of the ground and the works 
which they had thrown up. The plan of battle adopted was to make 
a feint there, a demonstration at the Stone Bridge, higher U}) the 
ravine threaded by the creek, and to send a considerable force across it, 
at Sudley Church, and take the enemies of freedom on the flank. When 
Hunter and Heintzelman had crossed and driven the enemy in till they 
were able to make a stand, Tyler ordered Sherman's Brigade to cross 
Bull Run and support Colonel Hunter. The brigade crossed gallantly, 
the Sixty-Ninth leading till they reached Hunter's Division, when 
General McDowell ordered them to pursue the enemy, now rapidly 
retreating. The Second Wisconsin then led on, down the hill and up 
the ridge, under a galling fire of artillery, rifle, and musketry. Passing 
the crest, the Wisconsin men twice charged bravely on the batteries, 
but were repulsed with loss. Then Cameron — who, though sick and 
feeble, almost, indeed, dying, yet resolved to head his regiment — 
closed up, and, at the order of Sherman, dashed over the brow of the 
hill, across the irregular ground and clusters of pine, all alive with 
riflemen. No mortal men could stand the fearful storm that swept 
them ; as they fell back, Cameron again and again led them up, his 
"Scots, follow me!" ringing above the din of battle, — till, at last. 
Wade Hampton, who had marked his gallant bearing, and fired rifle 
after rifle at him as his men handed tlicm up, accomplished his mur- 
derous purpose. Cameron fell in the deadly charge, — his death the 
exact counterpart of that of Colonel Cameron, of the British 79th, who 
fell at the battle of Fuentes de Onoro, killed by a French colonel, 
who seized a musket from one of his men. 

His l)ody was Ijorne to a I'arnihouse not far distant: but when the 



COLONEL JAMKS CAMEROX. 

Sixty-Ninth too failed to drive back the enemy and the rout began, 
his remains were left on the battle-field, and interred, it is said, near 
the house of a Mr. Dogan. A soldier secured from his lifeless body 
the miniatures of the colonel and his wile; but though an earnest 
appeal was made to General Beauregard to give up his remains to 

be buried by his family, that officer, with the want of humanity and 

of honor which has characterized him since he linked his fortunes 

with the unholy cause he advocates, refused to give up either the 

body or the miniature. Other efforts were made, but they were 

equally fruitless, and the noble leader of the brave Highland regiment / 

lies in his noble but unhonored grave, waiting the moment when a 

more auspicious day shall rear above the rocky ravine the flag of 

freedom and of man's best hopes. 



S L C U M . 



COLONEL JOHN S. SLOCUM, R.I.Y. 

KILLED AT BULL RUN, July 21, 1861. 



John S. Slocum, whose gallantry in the service of the United 
States, attested in two wars, and crowned by a glorions death in 
Virginia, was born in the town of Richmond, Rhode Island, on the 1st 
of November, 1824. Not long after his birth his family removed to 
Bristol, where John spent most of his earlier life, receiving his edu- 
cation at the schools of the place, and subsequentl}^ at the Fruit Hill 
and Marlborough Classical Schools, and at a Commercial Academy 
in Hartford. His mind was active, and he learned more than books. 
To manage a boat, to handle firearms, and to perform all the evolutions 
of the manual, were part of his self-acquired education. During the 
Dorr War, — one of those earlier manifestations of that destructive spirit 
which now seeks the utter annihilation of our national commonwealth, — ■ 
young Slocum rallied, as he ever did through life, to the cause of gov- 
ernment. As a member of the National Cadets, he felt greater obli- 
gations to render himself in fact, as in name, a citizen soldier. His 
inclination for the career of arms was decided, and he but needed a 
field, to achieve fame, and render his country service. 

When the Mexicans sought to check the advance of the Americans, 



COLONEL JOHN S. SLOCUM. 

on their territory along the Rio Grande and war began, Slocum has- 
tened to Washington, and without friends, influence, or position, by his 
own exertions at the door of the presidential mansion, made his way 
to the presence of the chief magistrate of the Union, and by his honest, 
manly offers of service, obtained what he alone desired, — a commission 
in the army. An act of Congress, passed on the 11th of February, 
1847, authorized the raising of ten additional regiments of regular 
infantry, and in the first of these, the ninth on the array lists, Slocum 
was appointed first lieutenant on the 18th, a week after the passage 
of the act. His captain was Joseph S. Pitman ; the colonel, almost 
from its organization, was Truman B. Ransom, Avho left the classic halls 
of Norwich University, of which he was president, to fight the battles 
of his country ; while tlie major was Thomas H. Seymour, since gov- 
ernor of Connecticut, a personal friend of Slocum, and the one from 
whom perhaps more than any other he acquired his military tastes. 
The new regiment was soon raised, organized, and fitted for service. 
Its destination was the army of General Scott in Mexico, which it 
reached in time to share in the series of glorious victories that attended 
the American arms. At the battle of Contreras, on the 19th of August, 
1847, the Ninth was one of the regiments ordered to attack the front 
of the enemy's works; and in consequence of the accident to General 
Pierce, Colonel Ransom commanded the force which received the 
enemy's fire, while Brigadier-general Smith assailed their rear. At 
the moment agreed. Ransom pushing on with General Shields, each 
on a different side, they routed a superior force of Mexicans opposed 
to them. Ransom in twenty minutes dislodging them from a village 
where they were strongly posted and covered. In the brilliant actions 
of that and the following day. Lieutenant Slocum was eminent even 



COLONEL J O H X S . S L O C U M . 

amid the gallant men around ; and his name is one of those to whose 
activity the success was attributed by the commanding officers. This 
gallant and meritorious conduct won him the brevet rank of captain. 
At Chapultepec, Ransom, leading the storming party up the 
heights in the face of a perfect sheet of fire, fell at the head of his 
gallant regiment, in which Lieutenant Slocum, since the promotion of 
his captain, commanded the company, and shared in all the glory of 
the day. They drove the enemy from his exterior intrenchments and 
positions, and held the counterscarp under the heaviest fire. The Ninth, 
led by Seymour on Ransom's fall, scaled the parapet, entered the cita- 
del, and struck the Mexican flag from the walls. The coolness and 
bravery of Slocum on that terrible day won liim the commission of 
captain, but his well-earned rank was of short duration. The victories 
of the American arms extorted peace, and with peace came the reduc- 
tion of the army to its former scale. The Ninth was disbanded, and 
Captain Slocum again returned to private life. As an officer, he had 
endeared himself to his men not only by his skill and bravery, — quali- 
ties which always command the soldiers' admiration, — but by his sin- 
gular attention to their wants. The drooping soldier on the march 
was often relieved of his musket by Lieutenant Slocum ; the soldier 
almost perishing with thirst, who lay down in despair, was restored 
and refreshed by a draught held to his lips by his lieutenant, who 
ventured through all hazards to get it. 

After the battle of Chapultepec, he had returned to the United 
States, having been detailed to the recruiting service, which was his 
last duty as an officer of the army. 

The experience which he had acquired was appreciated in his 
native State, and several corps of militia desired to avail themselves 



COLONEL J O 11 X S . S L O C U M . 

of his able direction, but it was only by repeated urging that he took 
command of the Mechanic Rifles. 

His military taste led him to interest himself in James's new pro- 
jectile, which he sought to introduce into Europe, and in testing which 
he nearly lost his life. 

In 1860, he was one of the Examining Board at West Point, and 
as Secretary, made the Report of the Visitors. When the Rebellion 
began, he was deeply pained, and too grieved in heart at the prospect 
before him to rush madly forward. He had seen war in its reality. 
In arms he would meet as foes the men beside whom he had fought 
and bled for the glorious cause of their common country. Yet when 
Colonel Burnside and Lieutenant-colonel Pitman offered themselves 
to the governor of Rhode Island, that noble patriot dispatched a 
messenger late in the night to ask Slocum to call upon him. A com- 
mission of major in the First Rhode Island was offered and accepted 
without a moment's hesitation. On the 20th of April, the regiment 
marched to the relief of the threatened capital. As in the Mexican 
War, I\Iajor Slocum won the affection of his men, and by his skill 
and experience aided to make them effective soldiers. When a second 
regiment was required from the State, Governor Sprague made him 
colonel, and authorized him to raise it. Returning to Rhode Island, 
he soon recruited a regiment, saw it properly equipi^ed, drilled it 
to a degree of efiiciency, and again marched to the seat of war. 

When the commander-in-chief resolved upon a forward movement 
of the American army against the rebel forces, the Second Rhode 
Island Regiment was assigned to Hunter's Division, and left Washington 
on the afternoon of July 15th, and at night encamped with the rest 
of Burnside's Brigade at Annandale. proceeding the next day to Fair- 



C O L O N K I. J O H X S . S I. O C U M . 

fax Court House, where they encamped. After occupying Centreville 
till the famous Sunday, July 21st, the whole army moved on towards 
the strong position occupied by the enemy, beyond the deep ravine, 
through which the small river known as Hull Run held its course. 
The Second Rhode Island Regiment, under Colonel Slocum, led the 
advance of the division which crossed Cob Run and reached Bull 
Run at Sudley's Ford on the extreme left of the enemy's line. From 
the heights the rebels could be seen moving rapidly forward, and, 
after a short rest. Colonel Slocum was ordered to throw out skirmishers 
upon the flanks and in front. These soon engaged the enemy, and 
Slocum bravely led on his regiment through the woods to the open 
ground, opening the terrible battle of Bull Run. Their steady advance 
was met by General Evans, but the enemy soon gave way under the 
steady, resolute charges of Colonel Slocum. But in the moment of 
his triumph, he fell mortally wounded, his dying eye cheered with 
the hope of victoiy, and his mind clouded by no foreboding of the 
disaster that ensued. Well had he done his part, the gallant leader 
' of a gallant corps! In his official report. Colonel Burnside bears 
honorable testimony to his worth. "The death of Colonel Slocum 
is a loss, not only to his own State, which mourns the death of a 
most gallant and meritorious officer, who would have done credit to 
the service, while his prominent abilities as a soldier would have raised 
him high in the public estimation. He had served with me as Major 
of the First Regiment of Rhode Island Volunteers, and when he was 
transferred to a more responsible position, I was glad that his services 
had been thus secured for the benefit of his country." His monument 
will proudly bear the words: Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec, 
Sudley Ford. st 



B ALLOU. 



MAJOR SULLIVAN BALLOU, R.I.V. 

KILLED AT BULL RUN, July 21, 1861. 



Major Sullivan Ballou, of the Second Rhode Island Regiment 
of Vohmteers, who lost his life at the disastrous battle of Bull Run, 
was one of the most prominent men of his native State, and one whose 
future seemed most likely to be honored with her dignities. Eloquent, 
able, honest, and fearless, he had always won distinction at the bar and 
in the council, before he laid aside the toga for the harness of war. 
He was born at Smithfield, Rhode Island, on the 28th day of March, 
1829, and passed the years of early childhood in his native town. 
Like many other New England families, to whom the western parts 
offer attractions and more enticing hopes of advancement, his familj 
left Smithfield when he was quite young, and resided at Rochester 
during most of his youth. His education was pursued in the schools 
of that place, but in 1846 he entered Phillips Academy, at Andover, 
Massachusetts, where he spent two years, preparatory to entering 
Brown University. Of that honored institution he was a collegian for 
only two years, when, without waiting his graduation and the honors 
conferred by its faculty, he proceeded to the National Law School in 



MAJOR SULLIVAN BALJ.OU. 

Ballston, New York, to fit himself for tlie profession to which his 
inclination no less than his evident abilities fitted him. 

On the completion of his studies he was admitted to the Rhode 
Island Bar, in March, 1853, and beginning the practice of the law at 
Smithfield, continued to devote himself to his profession there and in 
Providence until he left with his regiment for the seat of war. Few 
men ever relinquished more flattering prospects of success in their 
chosen profession than Mnjor Ballon. 

He was Clerk of the House of Representatives of Rhode Island 
during the years 1854, 1855, and 1856, and was elected a member 
of that House, as representative of his native town, in Ajn-il, 1857. 
Upon the meeting of the Legislature, he was, by the unanimous voice 
of the members, chosen to preside over their deliberations as speaker ; 
and so acceptably did he fill the chair, that when his constituents, 
in the succeeding year, returned him again to the House, he was 
again proposed for the speakership, l)ut declined the office. During 
the session, however, he discharged the responsible duties ol' chairman 
of the Committee on Corporations. 

He now, moreover, closed his career in a legislative capacity, 
declining a re-election, in order that he might devote himself exclu- 
sively to the duties of his profession ; and to avail himself of a more 
ample field for successful practice, removed at this time to Providence, 
and became associated with Charles F. Brownell, Esq. 

During his short service in the House of Representatives, he was 
a prominent member, being possessed of unusual powers of debate 
and eloquence as an advocate, and his gifts were never used except 
for the cause of justice and light. In whatever position he was 
placed, he was always distinguished. 



MAJOR SULLIVAN BALLOU. 

In April 1861, he was brought for^Yard by the Republican party 
as their candidate for the office of Attorney-general, but as the whole 
ticket was defeated, even his popularity did not suffice to turn the 

tide in his instance. 

The only public office held by him at the time was that of Judge- 
advocate of the Rhode Island Militia. When the call came for troops, 
his eloquence and his influence were all given to the cause of our 
national existence; and when Colonel Slocum returned from the seat 
of war to raise a second Rhode Island regiment, Sullivan Ballon, at 
two or three days' notice, accepted the rank of major,-a post 
assigned to him, not from his military experience, but from the gen- 
eral confidence felt, and most justly felt, in him. He proved before 
his death, as is attested by the unanimous testimony of his brother 
officers and the men, an unusual capacity for command and a great 
aptitude for the military art. He accepted rank from a patriotic 
sense of duty, knowing full well the danger to which he would be 
exposed,-feeling at the same time that terrible presentiment, that he 
should be one of the earliest victims. He could not remain at home: 
he had urged others to stand up for their common country, and when 
the call came to him, he could not even hesitate, though he almost 
knew he was rushing to a speedy death. 

When the regiment was formed, he accompanied it to Washington; 
and when the grand army took up its line of march for the intricate 
series of works behind which the armed hordes of rebellion had in- 
trenched themselves, on being baffled in the seizure of the capital, which 
they had so craftily planned. Major Ballon was, with his regiment, ever 
on the alert, regardless of danger, eager to learn and to do. He was 
the first to reach and plant the flag upon the first works of the enemy 



MAJOR SULLIVAN HALLOU. 

which thi'y descried, but which proved to be deserted, abandoned by 
the enemy in their retrograde movement. 

On the day of the battle, his regiment opened the action, after 
crossing Bull Run at Sudley Church ; and here, while* leading on his 
men to the charge, he was struck by a cannon-ball, which killed his 
horse and shattered his leg. He was borne off the field to Sudley 
Church, which became the hospital, and there breathed his last, at the 
age of thirt3'-two years and five months. His remains were committed 
to the earth on the unfriendly soil of Virginia. 

He had married, in the summer of 1855, Miss Sarah Hart Shum- 
way, of Poughkeepsie, New York, who with their two children mourn 
his early loss. 

Of the many worthy sons of brave Rhode Island who fell on that 
fatal day, none was perhaps so well and so favorably known as Major 
Ballou, and his State could ill spare one who, so young, had shown 
so great an ability for its highest honors. 



T O W E R. 



CAPTAIN LEVI TOWER, R.I.V. 



KILLED AT BULL RUN, July 21, 1861. 



Captain Levi Tower, only son of Captain John C. and Sarah G. 
Tower, and grandson of the late Colonel Levi Tower, of Newport, 
Rhode Island, was born in the village of Blackstone, town of Mendon, 
Massachusetts, August 18, 1835, where his parents temporarily so- 
journed during their absence from Pawtucket, North Providence, Rhode 
Island. In 1843, when their son was eight years old, his parents re- 
turned to Pawtucket, where they still reside. In infancy he was given 
to God in baptism in St. Paul's Church, of which his father and mother 
were members. He was a son of vows, and \,as accordingly trained 
up. As soon as he was old enough, he was sent to the Sunday-school, 
which he constantly and punctually attended for several years. On 
the Lord's Day he was always in his place at church. His religious 
education was faithfully attended to, and nothing was left undone that 
parental love could do. At an early age, he displayed more than 
ordinary intellectual abilities, and no means were left unemployed to 
improve them. He attended for several years the public school in 
the district in which he lived, and received the instruction of com- 
petent teachers. At a later period of life, he went through a thorough 



CAPTAIN LEVI TOWER. 

course of classical training under Messrs. Frieze and Lyon, in the 
University Grammar School in the city of Providence. In due time 
he entered Brown University, which he was subsequently compelled 
to leave in consequence of ill health. He then turned his attention 
to one department of practical mechanics, in which he made commend- 
able proficiency. He next became clerk to Jacob Bunnell, Esq., owner 
of an extensive calico-printing establishment in Pawtucket, Massachu- 
setts, where, by his faithfulness and devotion to business, he won the 
confidence of his employer, and Ijy his gentlemanly deportment gained 
the strong, almost parental affection of him and family, Captain Tower 
was one of the original members of the Pawtucket Light Guard. He 
entered the company as a private, and rose rapidly from one gradation 
to another to a captaincy. Whatever he undertook, he did with all 
his might. He could not and would not remain stationary. His aim 
was always — Higher ! and he j^i'essed onward and upward, and stopped 
not, till he reached it. This was true of him from childiiood to man- 
hood. The boy was the father of the man. 

At the call of his country, he, with the Pawtucket Light Guard, 
of which he was then ensign, joined the First Regiment of Rhode 
Island Volunteers, and proceeded to Washington. This regiment was 
one of the first three regiments that reached our national capital for 
its defence. Here he had the confidence and regard of his superiors, 
and the respect and love of the common soldiers. 

A night service, secret, important, and perilous, was to be per- 
formed on the banks of the Potomac. Our young hero was selected 
iVoni the whole regiment for this service. With a few soldiers undei- 
his command, he performed it successfully and safely. He shrunk frmn 
no service, however arduous or dangerous. Inspired liy a sense of 



CAPTAIN LEVI TOWER. 

duty and feelings of the noblest patriotic devotion, where military 
obedience called, thither he went. 

He was soon recalled by the military authorities to his own town 
and State, to assume the caj^taincy of a company in the Second Rhode 
Island Regiment ; which he did, and returned to Washington. 

On the 21st of July, 1861, he led his company to the battle-field, 
engaged in the fierce and terrible conflict, and fell a martyr to his 
country. A noble sacrifice, and worthy the cause ! The last words 
that fell from his lips were addressed to his fellow-soldiers — " Go in^ 
hoys r 

The last days of his life were unusually serious, prayerful, and devout. 
In his letters to the loved ones at home, his earnest request was — " Pray 
for me." The evening previous to the battle in which he fell, he spent 
in a prayer-meeting, and took a part in the services. 

Wrapped in his military blanket, he was buried near the field of 
battle. A private, Joseph Barnes, a member of his company, moved 
by feelings of love to his commander, took of his small funds the sum 
of two dollars to have his body decently interred. Let his name be 
remembered in gratitude forever by the friends of Tower! 



HAGGERTY. 



LIEUT. COL. JAMES HAUGERTY, N.Y.S.M. 

KILLED AT BULL RUN, July 21, 1861. 



The militia have never been regarded as a very reliable force for 
attack or defence, and the past experience of the country to some 
extent justified the impression. Still, there have always been corps in 
the country which, by their faithful drill and exercise, by the real 
military spirit which they cultivated, have been most reliable soldiers. 
The Seventh Regiment of the New York State militia is well known for 
its high state of discipline, and for the promptness with which it 
marched to the seat of wai*. Although never in action as a regiment, 
it has, since its return, sent many of its members to the field as officers 
of volunteer regiments, and some of these have already, in their life's 
blood, attested their courage and patriotic ardor. 

The Sixty-Ninth Regiment was not inferior to the Seventh in dis- 
cipline or zeal. Organized in 1851, it had under Colonel Roe been 
brought to a state of great proficiency. Colonel J. R. Ryan advanced 
it still more, and during the period of the military occupation of Staten 
Island, in consequence of tl;e wanton destruction of public property by 
rioters there, won universal commendation for his regiment, by the 
perfect order which he maintained, and the strict adherence to all the 



LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JAMES HAGGERTY. 

regulations oi" the service. A regiment of United States troops could 
not have surpassed them. 

When, in 1859, Captain Michael Corcoran was made colonel of the 
Sixty-Ninth, James Haggerty received his commission as captain of com- 
pany A. He was born at Glenswilly in the County of Donegal, Ireland, 
of a family whose martial turn led many of its members into the English 
service. James Haggerty was brought up a house-carpenter, and after 
starting in business for himself in his own country, proceeded to Scot- 
land in 1844, hoping to find a wider field for his energy; but as his 
expectations were not satisfied there, he emigrated to the United States 
in 1849, and, being an expert workman, found profitable employment 
in the large machine-shops of New York and Philadelphia, but soon 
resumed his original calling as a builder, in which he was most success- 
ful, l)eing a man of energy, determination, and watchfulness. 

During a period when hopes were entertained of an armed effort 
of Ireland to throw off the national subjugation forced upon her by 
England, Haggerty entered warmly into the organization of military 
associations here, and became, in 18o.'{, Captain of the \Yolfe Tone Vol- 
unteers, a division of the Republican Rifles. After a time, the men 
thus organized and drilled, formed a regiment of New York State militia, 
in which Haggerty held the commission of Lieutenant-colonel till the 
regiment was disbanded by the State. 

His ability as an officer was well known, and the command of a 
company in the Sixty-Ninth was urged upon him. He accepted it, and 
every inch a soldier himself, he sought to make all so, and \Yas a most 
strict discijilinarian. When the regiment was ordered to the seat of 
war, he responded promptly to the call of his country, ready to lay 
down his life for its honor. Not as a hollow form of words had he 



LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JAMES HAGGERTY. 

sworn to support the Constitution of the United States: but as a high 
and holy pledge to be executed at all hazards. All who knew his 
daring courage, felt that he would fall in his first battle; and he so 
infuse°d his spirit into his men, that they were ever on the alert, bent on 
being the first in action. 

The Sixty-Ninth left New York on Tuesday, the 23rd of Aprd ; 
their march to the steamer James Adger, through a crowd of friends, 
that drove every vehicle from Broadway, was like a triumph. Escorted 
by civic societies, and aided by the police, they at last reached the pier. 
The vessel was totally inadequate for the service. More than a thousand 
men were crowded into a steamer, able only to carry a few hundred. 
Much suffering, and at least the loss of one life resulted, but the regiment 
bore all, in its eagerness to reach the field. On the morning of the 26th, 
they reached Annapolis, and the next day marched to Annapolis Junc- 
tion, where for a week they remained guarding that important point, 
which organized bands of rebels stood ready to seize, as they had seized 
and destroyed other railroad communications. On being relieved by the 
Fifth New York, they marched on to Washington, and encamped at 
Georgetown College. From their landing. Captain llaggerty had been 
untiring in his attention to his men, and his care to bring them to the 
hio-hest'' degree of discipline. He himself was all watchfulness, making 
the rounds at night, and taking scarcely any sleep. To the negligent 
and remiss, he was a terror, but he required of none what he did not 

fulfil himself 

On the 24th of May, while Ellsworth's Regiment was to go down in 
boats to Alexandria, the Sixty-Ninth and Twenty-Eighth New York, 
with Drummond's cavalry and a battery, crossed the Aqueduct Bridge, 
about one o'clock in the morning, seized the railroad, and captured a 



L 1 E U T E N A N T - C O L O N E L JAMES H A G G E R T Y . 

party of rebels retreating from Alexandria. The regiment encamped 
on Arlington Heights, and soon threw up the strong works which, under 
the name of Fort Corcoran, j^crpctuate the memory of their services, 
sufferings, and blood, on Virginia soil. 

On the 12th of July, the regiment received orders to hold them- 
selves in readiness to march at a moment's notice, and were soon all in 
light marching order, eager to advance. The order came on the even- 
ing of the 15th, and the next day the regiment, now attached to 
Colonel Sherman's brigade, with Captain Haggerty acting as Lieutenant- 
colonel, marched along the Fairfax turnpike to Fall's Church, and 
turning off, encamped in a marsh near Vienna. The next day, leading 
the van, they pressed on by Fairfax Court House to Germantown, the 
enemy falling back before them, and not appearing in force anywhere 
except at Fairfax. 

On the 18th, our arniy entered Centreville, and the advance 
attacked the batteries of the enemy on Bull Ptun. When, for five 
hours, the Twelfth and Thirteenth New York, had stood their ground, 
the Sixty-Ninth was ordered up, and mistaking the retreating Thir- 
teenth for the foe, were about plunging upon them in a terrible bayonet 
charge, when Haggerty dashed along the line and struck the bayonets 
up with his sword, — his keen eye, which never ceased its watchful care, 
having detected the error of the men, and his clear head and stout 
arm, at the risk of his own life, checking a movement which would have 
been as fotal as the mistake at Little Bethel. They were then ordered 
to lie down in the wood overlooking the field of battle, exposed to the 
shot and shell and canister of the enemy's batteries, — Captain Haggerty 
standing erect on the right, marking .with evident pleasure the steadi- 
ness of his men. General McDowell, at last satisfied by personal 



LIEUTENANT-rOLONEL JAMES HAOOERTY, 

observation of the uselessness of further attack, drew off the men to 
Centreville. 

On Su day, the 21st of July, a day never to be forgotten in 
American annals, the whole army moved forward to assail the enemy 
under Beauregard, in their intrenched position beyond the deep ravine 
through which Bull Run crept slowly along, with its diminished cur- 
rent. The American army, commanded by Brigadier-general Irwin 
McDowell, advanced in three divisions, — Hunter on the extreme right, 
crossing at Sudley's Mills, and followed by Heintzelman, so as to take 
the enemy in flank; while Tyler's Division, in which the Sixty-Ninth 
formed part of Sherman's Brigade, advanced upon the Stone Bridge. 
Another division made a demonstration on the left, at Blackburn's 
Ford. Beauregard soon discovered the plan, and rapidly moved troops 
across to his menaced left ; but Hunter for a time drove them steadily 
in, and when about noon they made a stand, Sherman's Brigade crossed 
the run, the Sixty-Ninth leading. As they advanced slowly, they came 
upon a party of the enemy retreating along a cluster of pines, and 
Lieutenant-colonel Haggerty, dashing at them, fell mortally wounded, — 
the first of his regiment to meet a glorious death on that day of 
gallant deeds. He died ready and devoted : as a patriot and as a 
Christian soldier, with his soul prepared to meet his Creator, with the 
blessings of his Church upon him. He died in the foremost of the 
fight, not spared to see those gallant charges of his regiment on the 
rebel batteries, or their masterly retreat in a hollow square, with 
General Sherman in the centre. 

"Strikingly noticeable by reason of his large iron frame, and the 
boldly-chiselled features, on which the impress of great strength of 
will and intellect was softened by a constant play of humor, and the 



LIEUTENANT- COLONEL JAMES HAOGERTY. 

goodness and grand simplicity of his heart, — wrapped in his rough 
old overcoat, Avith his sword crossed upon his breast, his brow boldly 
uplifted as though he. were still in command, and the consciousness of 
having done his duty sternly to the last animating the Roman face, — 
there lies James Haggerty, a braver soldier than whom the land of 
Sarsfiekl and Shields has not produced." 



JONES. 



CAPTAIN ELISHA N. JONES, M.V. 



MORTALLY WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN, Jul7 21, 1861. 



Elisha N. Jones, the first Maine oiRcer to give his life in this 
struggle, was born at Holden, Maine, on the 8th of Septemljer, 1819. 
His family had borne its part manfully in the military service of the 
country, his grandfather having been a soldier in the army of the 
Revolution, and his father, Luther Jones, a soldier in the last war 
with England. The spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion was no less 
manifest in their descendant. His early years were quietly spent : 
he learned his trade as a blacksmith, but finding the work too severe, 
removed to the town of Brewer and embarked in trade. He was 
soon afterwards elected captain of the Brewer Artillery, and continued 
to hold his commission till he departed for the seat of war. Al^out 
two years since he removed to Orrington, an adjoining town, but 
continued his connection with the place where he had so long resided. 
When the call was issued for volunteers for the defence of our gov- 
ernment, he immediately repaired to Brewer, opened a recruiting 
office, and raising a company, received a captain's commission, and 
was mustered, with his command, into the gallant Second Regiment 
of Maine Volunteers. This regiment was raised under the proclamation 



CAPTAIN ELISHA N. JONES. 

calling for volunteers for three months ; but, before it marched, the 
entire company re-enlisted for three years. 

The regiment left Bangor amid a general grief, borne up, however, 
by the patriotic feeling of self-devotion which prompted the sacrifice. 
But brave and patriotic as were the hearts of the spectators, they 
could not but feel how much it cost to give up dear friends even 
for the salvation of the commonwealth. 

The regiment reached New York on the 16th of ^lay, and excited 
general "admiration as they were drawn up in front of the City Hall 
to 4'eceive the American flag, which the men of Maine residing in 
that great city presented to the gallant sons of their State, whose 
vigorous, manly forms, and determined bearing, left no doubt but 
that the honor of the frontier State was safe in their hands. 

After spending a couple of weeks at Willett's Point, New York, 
awaiting orders, the regiment, on the 30th of May, left it for the seat 
of war. On reaching Washington, the regiment was stationed at Camp 
McDowell, beyond the Potomac, and began to jjrepare for the real 
service of the field. Captain Jones was unwearied in his attention 
to his men, and his endeavors to bring them to a state of perfect 
discipline and skill The day before the battle, the ladies of Maine 
in California presented to the regiment a flag, which made all but 
the more eager for an engagement. Hitherto they had seen none 
of the stern realities of war. 

In a letter to his wife, the day before the battle, the last that he 
ever addressed her, he said : 

"We have not fired a gun at an enemy yet, but we mean to if 
we can get near enougli. Now don't worry ; if it is Gorl's will that 
I should fall in battle in defending the flag of my country, it would 



CAPTAIN ELISHA N, JONES. 

be wrong foi' you to repine. I could wish for no more honorable 
death, nor could you wish for a more honorable one for your husband. 
But I do not anticipate that such will be the case. I feel as if I 
should return to you again, and I believe I shall." 

The Second Maine, under Colonel Jameson, was assigned to Colonel 
Keyes' Brigade, of the first division. Early on the morning of the 21st 
Jul}^ they left Centreville, and after marching towards the enemy's camp, 
halted to watch the road coming up from Manassas; but when Sher- 
man's Brigade had crossed Bull Run, Keyes led his brigade over the 
stream, and formed it on tlie left of Sherman's. From ten o'clock, for 
four hours, they advanced steadily on the foe, who fought his ground 
inch by inch ; but about two o'clock General Tyler ordered the Second 
Maine and Third Connecticut to take a battery on a height in front, well 
posted and strongly supported by infantry and riflemen. They dashed 
gallantly on through a murderous fire, and drove the enemy back till 
they themselves came under the fire of new and intrenched foes, when 
they drew off to a wooded slope, in order to reform and renew the 
charge. Captain Jones' company led the advance, in charging up the 
hill on the enemy's artillery and infantry, with gallantry that could not 
be surpassed. In this desperate movement he was in front, cheering 
them on, — "Come on, boys! come on!"— when a rifle-ball passed into 
his side and back, seriously injuring bis spine. He was immediately 
raised up by his men and borne to the hospital, but in the disastrous 
termination of the well-fought day, he fell into the hands of the enemy, 
and soon after expired a prisoner. 

In private life he was virtuous, industrious, and active ; a good hus- 
band, and a good citizen. Of a genial disposition and gentlemanly 
bearing, he was loved by all who knew him. As a commander, he was 



CAPTAIN ELI S HA N. JONES. 

mild, but firm and courageous. General Jameson, then colonel of the 
Second Maine, styles him "as brave a man as ever unsheathed a sword." 
On the field of battle he was calm and self-possessed, evincing every 
quality that becomes a soldier, and which would have insured his 
speedy promotion ; but the hopes that centred around him were blasted, 
and we can but revere his memory as that of a martyr to the cause of 
the republic founded by the blood and the sacrifices of our fathers. 

Captain Jones married, in 1842, Miss Susan T. Eldridge, of Holden, 
with whom he lived in the most perfect union, and none parted with 
more tenderness of feeling ; but she made the sacrifice which has proved 
to be a final one, and giving him, gave her all. 



TILLINGHAST. 



«» 



CAPTAIN OTIS H. TILLINGHAST, U. S. A 



KILLED AT BULL RUN, July 21, 1861. 



Among the distinguished officers whom she has sent forth to fight 
the battles of freedom in this war, New York can boast no worthier 
son than Captain Otis H. Tillinghast, of the regular army of the United 
States ; a thorough soldier, an educated officei', trained to the career 
of arms, joyous, amiable, generous in disposition, self-denying and 
devoted, yet possessing great energy and decision of character, fitting 
him for the more arduous duties or commands. 

His parents were of the most respectable families of New England, 
his father, John Tillinghast, Esquire, being apparently of that old 
Rhode Island family, which has never been without a representative 
in the military service of the country from the days of the Revolution. 
He was, however, a native of Connecticut, but removed about 1820 to 
Homer, in the county of Cortland, in the State of New York. Here 
Otis was born, on the 6th of March, 1823. His early days were spent 
in Morrisville, and his early education was acquired in the village 
schools. His first choice of a profession for life, if we may judge by 
the manifestations of his inclinations, was for the practice of medicine, 
but a cadetship having been obtained for him by the Hon. A. L. Foster, 



CAPTAIN OTIS H. TIL LI N r, II AS T. 

the member of Congress from the district in which tlie fi\mily resided, 
Otis entered the military academy at West Point, in June, 1843, l)eing 
then in his twenty-first year. lie devoted his time earnestly to the 
acquisition of the knowledge of his profession, and graduated with 
honor on the 1st of July, 1847. He was immediately appointed Brevet 
Second Lieutenant in the Third Artillery, and joined Sherman's Battery 
under General Taylor at vSaltillo, Mexico, in the fall of 1847; -but as the 
operations of the army under his command virtually ended with the 
battle of Buena Vista, the young officer had no opportunity of distin- 
guishing himself iii any general battle. He served, however, on that 
line, gaining experience, till the close of the war, when he came to 
New York, and w'as stationed for a time in the military ^losts in the 
harbor, having been meanwhile promoted to a first lieutenancy, and 
transferred from the Third to the First Artillery. 

In 1848, and the succeeding year, he was associated with the 
Mexican Boundary Commission, organized after the peace of Guadalupe 
Hidalgo, to run the boundary between the United States and Mexico, 
his acquaintance with the country rendering his aid extremely valuable. 
Difliculties of various kinds grew up between the members of the com- 
mission, and Captain Tillinghast, in the ditficult position in which he 
Avas placed, acted in such a manner as to receive the approval of the 
War Department. When he closed his labors in the Commission, he 
was for a time stationed at Old Point Comfort, Virginia ; and in June, 
1856, having been appointed Regimental Quartermaster, he proceeded 
to Florida witli his regiment, — fresh Indian troubles having broken out 
in that State, which has never, since its purchase by the United States, 
enjoyed peace and repose. Fortunately, on this occasion, affairs were 
brought to an understanding without a repetition of the tedious war 



CAPTAIN OTIS H. TILLINGHAST. 

in the everglades. Lieutenant Tillinghast remained on duty till Billy 
Bowlegs removed, and the difficulties with the Seminoles were finally 
closed. The young officer was then stationed in Fort Moultrie, in 
Charleston harbor, where he remained down almost to the commence- 
ment of the insurrection, but was recalled before Major Anderson trans- 
ferred his command from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, and underwent 
the siege that has rendered the latter fort so memorable. 

Lieutenant Tillinghast was next summoned to Baltimore, where, in 
addition to his duties as Quartermaster of the regiment, he acted as 
Adjutant until May, 1861, when he was promoted to a captaincy in the 
Quartermaster s Department, and attached to the staff of Major-general 
Mansfield's command, the military department of Washington. In July, 
however, he was assigned to duty as Chief Quartermaster to General 
McDowell's army, a position no less honorable than responsible. For 
the position, however, he possessed peculiar qualities, and his fitness 
for the office had been tested by his accurate and provident discharge 
of its duties on a less extended scale. So far as his important depart- 
ment was concerned, he labored assiduously for the successful issue of 
the campaign, and when the action came, displayed courage, coolness, 
and patriotism. His duties as quartermaster did not require him in the 
heat of the combat, but while the great drama of battle was enacting, 
he could not be a mere spectator. Eveiy inch a soldier, he offered to 
his country the experience and skill which he had acquired at her 
hands ; and in her service, if need be, his life. Attaching himself to the 
first brigade of the second division, commanded by Colonel Porter, he 
was, to use the words of that officer, "ever present when his services were 
required, carrying orders, serving with the batteries, rallying the troops, 
and finally was nu)rtally wounded" at the commencement of the retreat. 



CAPTAIN OTIS H. TI LLIN G II AST. 

He had ,lono his duty nobly in the gallant advance of the army 
across Bull Run, and when the causeless panic ensued, used every effort 
to restore the presence of mind of men who were madly rushing in 
flight before an enemy who had never made a stand against them, 
unless with fearful odds of numbers or position on their side. While 
thus endeavoring to stem the tide, he was mortally wounded, an ounce 
ball passing directly through the lower part of his body. On receiving 
his wound, he rode up to Captain Butt, of the Fourteenth New York Vol- 
unteers, and asked for assistance as calmly and as cheerfully as though 
nothing had occurred. Dr. Wilson, after examining his wound, which 
he saw to be of a fatal character, assisted him into an ambulance, and 
ordered him to be immediately transported to Centreville. He was, 
at his own request, conveyed to the nearest house, occupied by a Mrs. 
Spindel, where he fell into the hands of the enemy, and received every 
attention from Doctors Allen, McGregor, and Swift, surgeons in the 
American army, then also prisoners. But his wound was mortal, and 
after lingering till ten o'clock on Wednesday morning, he expired 
without a murmur or a groan. On being removed to the house, he 
had asked that his wife should be sent for, but this was impossible, and 
he was deprived of that last consolation of his dying moments. Just 
before he died, he was recognized by an old classmate and friend. 
General Evans of the rebel army, who had his remains properly interred,' 
and the spot marked so that his llimily might recover his body. 

His wife, thus deprived of ministering at his dying couch, was Miss 
Elizabeth F. Wyman, daughter of 0. C. Wyman, Es.j., of Boston, and a 
woman of most estimable character. Captain Tillinghast was of dark 
complexion, medium size and height, of fine stature and personal 
appearance. All who knew him, bore testimony to his merit, and 



CAPTAIN OTIS II. TILLINGHAST. 

wherever he went, he gained the friendship of those with whom he 
came in contact. A classmate described him as being " gentle as a 
woman, but noble and brave when occasion demanded." He was a 
thorough soldier, loving his profession with glowing enthusiasm, and 
full of faithful devotedness to the government of the United States. 
His last letter to his wife foreshadowed his death, and seemed a solemn 
parting from one he loved. His conversations with fellow-officers, 
seemed to show that he anticipated meeting his death in the coming 
engagement, and when he received the fatal wound, he replied to an 
officer who asked him whether he was much hurt, — " Yes, but it is as 
I expected." 



CRAIG. 



LIEUTENANT PRESLEY 0. CRAIG, U. S. A, 



KILLED AT BULL RUN, Jui.t 21, 1861. 



Presley Oldham Craig was the third son of Colonel Henry K. and 
Maria Bethune Craig, and was born at the Watertowu Arsenal, in the 
State of Massachusetts, in December, a. d. 1834. The tie of nativity 
was not the only one that bound him to that ancient and patriotic 
commonwealth, for to her he also owed one half his parentage, and 
traced his maternal descent from the Hunts of Watertown and the 
Bethunes and Faueuils of Boston. But the family whose name he 
owned and illustrated by a manly life and heroic death, has been, since 
the Revolutionary war, settled in Western Pennsylvania. His grand- 
father, Major Isaac Craig, and General John Neville, his great-grand- 
father, had both born conspicuous parts in the war of Independence, 
and were much distinguished for eminent services in the patriotic cause. 
At the termination of the contest, both officers, with other relatives and 
friends, fixed their future homes near the site of the present city of 
Pittsburg, where the State of Virginia then claimed territorial sway. 

In the troubles that followed the breaking out of the insurrection 
of the western Peunsylvanians, in 1794, the fidelity and soldiery spirit 



L I E r T E N A X T PRESLEY O . CRAIG. 

of these revolutionary veterans was still further tested on the side of 
the government they had labored with unsparing sacrifices to establish. 
The historian of the American republic bears cordial testimony to the 
priceless services rendered by them, at every risk of life and with 
large loss of property, in support of the national cause during this 
trying period of Washington's administration, in stemming a rebellion, 
that, in the words of Marshall, "at one time threatened to shake the 
government of the United States to its foundation." 

The military spirit that had marked the character of the revolu- 
tionary ancestry of the subject of this sketch, was not wanting to the 
succeeding generation. Colonel Henry Knox Craig, his father, entered 
the army at the outset of the late war with Great Britain, and served 
with much credit during the campaign, taking part in many actions on 
the Canadian frontier. In the war with Mexico, the same oiHcer, then 
a veteran of nearly forty years' service, joined General Taylor's army at 
Corpus Christi, and participating in the most arduous operations of the 
army of the Rio Grande, shared the dangers of all the battles fought 
on that frontier. 

By him of whose character and too brief life it is here sought to 
give some account, the soldierly qualities of his forefathers were inherited 
in their largest extent, and exhibited themselves as his strongest trait. 
Unusual personal beauty, united with an uncommonly gentle and docile 
disposition, had marked a childhood that, to eyes less partial than 
parental ones, gave most excellent promise for maturer life. Ripening 
years fulfilled every assurance ; and while the outward form developed 
into the exactest symmetry and mould, the inward nature and dispo- 
sition seemed to take upon itself the stronger and sterner qualities of 
the man, witliout parting with or lessening the gentler and more 



LIEUTENANT PRESLEY O. CRAIG. 

engaging features that had lent so much attractiveness to early age 
In his character were singularly blended those mild and ingenuous traits 
that irresistibly win love and confidence from every sex and age, with 
those other qualities of mind and temper, that exacted the esteem and 
respect of all to whom he was known, or with whom he was bi'ought 
in contact. It was, indeed, scarcely possible to imagine a combination 
of personal excellences more surely calculated to gain the universal 
popularity he enjoyed. Strikingly handsome in outward appearance, 
the expression of his features, constantly illumined by a sweet and 
gentle smile, bespoke a nature open, sincere, and affectionate; and in 
every look and word was given the outspoken indication of a temper 
bold, ardent, and enthusiastic. 

If he inherited a strong predilection for the profession of arms, he 
likewise derived from an honorable and upright ancestry, besides his 
distinguished traits of high chivalric courage, those other sentiments, 
which are wont to adorn the purest characters, of deep and unalterable 
conviction of the obligations of pi'ofessional duty. Receiving his com- 
mission as Second Lieutenant in the Second Regiment of Artillery, in 
June, 1857, he was fully conscious that the position in which he was 
placed exacted all his energies to meet its requirements, and to the 
task imposed, he lent every exertion of which he was capable. Assiduous 
in the discharge of duty, he was untiring in his efforts to impart to the 
men of his company an ample amount of the military instruction he had 
received. The first years of service were passed at Fort Hamilton, in 
New York harbor. Here the monotony of garrison life, with its attend- 
ant inactivity, weighed heavily on a naturally adventurous and enter- 
prising mind, and he vainly attempted to effect an exchange with a 
brother ofScer, which should place him in a company performing field 



LIEUTENANT PRESLEY O. CRAIG. 

service on the frontier. Official routine withheld its sanction, and 
Lieutenant Craig remained at a seaboard station. 

In the latter part of the summer of 1860, he received a very severe 
sprain of the left foot, by being thrown from a vehicle in I'apid motion. 
After vainly expecting, during some two months or more, the comple- 
tion of a cure that was proportionably slow from the unsuspected extent 
of the injury, he rejaaired to Washington, there to undergo the proper 
treatment, and await the tedious progress of restoration to strength, 
under the favorable auspices of home and the more assiduous care and 
attention there obtainable. At the end of the time designated in his 
leave of absence, a scarcely perceptible advancement in his condition 
had been made, and the leave was from time to time renewed, till the 
beginning of the summer of 1861 found him still in Washington, and 
unable to walk without the aid of crutches. In the midst of the scenes 
of warlike preparation which he witnessed, while being debarred from 
participation, his impatience at the prospect of enforced idleness on the 
occasions for military distinction that then seemed to be opening to 
immediate view, bore heavily on his spirits. Even with himself he 
would not admit a possibility but that a complete recovery of strength 
could not be long delayed ; and he was wont to declare jiositivcly that 
in two or three weeks' time he would be able to dispense with the use 
of any supporting aid in walking, and fully ready to take the field. But 
when General McDowell's army was organized for a forward movement, 
Lieutenant Craig was still unable to do service with his company, and 
his place was supplied by another officer. On the Wednesday preced- 
ing the Battle of Bull Run, the battery commanded by Major Hunt, his 
brother-in-law, arrived from Fort Pickens, whence it had been brought 
at the last moment to augment the artillery force of the projected expe- 



LIEUTENANT PRESLEY O. CRAIG. 

dition. One of its officers was so disabled by sickness as to be unfit for 
service, and in his stead Lieutenant Craig, declaring himself fit for duty, 
volunteered to serve, though yet unable to walk without the assistance 
of a cane. There being a demand for well-instructed and experienced 
officers, his application for orders was favorably considered at head- 
quarters, and he was attached to Major Hunt's mounted battery on the 
day before it marched to Centreville, arriving there with it on the 
Saturday previous to the battle of July 21st. On Sunday morning, in 
the midst of preparations for marching to take position in the line of 
battle, and the opportunity for its transmission being offered, he hur- 
riedly pencilled and dispatched the following note, which only reached 
its destination after his lifeless body had been borne across the paternal 
threshold : 

6 A. M., Sunday. 

Dear Father, — 

We are to have a grand battle this morning. The movement 
has been delayed by the troops not getting in position. I was out 
from before sundown till three this morning with a section, but feel all 
right. We have been put in the reserve, but will be called on soon. 
We are to turn the left, if we can. I have not time to write more. 
Love to all. 

Your affectionate son, 

Presley 0. Craig. 

When the evening of this eventful day had closed on its memorable 
scenes, the too brief earthly career of a brave, devoted, and patriotic 
soldier was already ended; but that short and bright career was con- 
cluded in the not least g-lorious contest of the long-continued battle. 



LIEUTKXANT PRESLEY U. CRAIO. 

The history of the few remaining hours of his life is to be had in that 
of the fortunes of tlie division of the army he was posted with. 

In the pUxn of battle which General McDowell carried out, the 
attacking columns of our forces were moved forv/ard on the enemy's left 
flank by roads which diverged to the right from the dii'ect and shortest 
route from Centreville to Bull Run, and this movement brought on the 
main action in front of the right wing of the federal army. At Centre- 
ville, and along the road that leads thence to Blackburn's Ford, were 
distributed the reserves under Colonel Miles, as a part of which Major 
Hunt's battery had been detailed. Two brigades of volunteers, com- 
manded by Colonels Davies and Richaidson, with Major Hunt's twelve- 
pounders, and a section of a battery of rifled artillery under Lieutenant 
Edwards, guarded the approaches from this ford, on the extreme left ot 
General McDowell's line. At this point the rebel general designed 
making his attack in the morning, instead of awaiting the advance of the 
Union army; but being compelled by the unexpected and impetuous 
attack from the direction of Sudley's Ford, directed against his left flank, 
and by which it was successfully turned, to divert his attention wholly 
to that quarter, no demonstration was actually made at Blackburn's Ford 
till after McDowell's right wing and centre had fallen back in disorder. 
At this juncture, a heavy column of the rebels, supposed to be under the 
command of General Ewell, passed the stream below Blackbnirn's Ford, 
and advanced to storm the battery stationed in front of it. These forces 
had been led across Bull Run, at some distance from the point they were 
designed to attack, and advanced from a direction considerably in the 
rear of and towards the left flank of the Union troops, as they were 
drawn up fronting on the stream. Tliis left flank rested on a deep and 
wide ravine, which the enemy must cross in making their charge. A 



LIEUTENANT PRESLEY O. CRAIG. 

description of the action that ensued is taken from Major Hunt's report, 
as yet unpublished. 

"About four-and-a-half or five p. M., after the battle was apparently 
gained on the right, while large reinforcements of infiintry and cavalry 
were observed hurrying up from the direction of Manassas, a strong 
force of infantry and some cavalry, variously estimated at from 2000 
to 5000 men in all, appeared on our left, approaching parallel to our 
front by the lateral openings into the great ravine on our flank. The 
infantry only was first seen, and as they approached without any appar- 
ent attempt at concealment, preceded by our skirmishers, they were 
supposed to be our own troops. As the numbers increased, I rode 
down the ravine with my first sergeant to reconnoitre them. Some of 
our skirmishers stated that they had seen no troops ; others said they 
were the Thirty-Fourth New Yorkers coming in. They carried no 
colors, and their numbers increasing to an alarming extent, I hurried 
back and changed the front of the battery, so as to command all the 
openings into the ravine, and the approaches to our position. Colonel 
Davies, 9,t the same time, detached a couple of companies into the 
ravine as skirmishers. The latter had scarcely deployed when a sharp 
rattle of musketry removed all doubts as to the character of the advan- 
cing troops. We had been surprised, and the enemy was close upon 
us in large force. Our inflxntry regiments had changed front with the 
battery, but unfortunately closed their intervals behind it. Precious 
time was now lost in getting them on our flanks. Had they remained 
in our rear, they would have been unnecessarily exposed to the fire 
directed on the battery : and in case of a determined charge for our 
capture, which I confidently expected, they would have been apt to 
fire through us, destroying men and horses, and crippling the guns. 



LIEUTENANT PRESLEY O. CRAIG. 

At length they were moved to the right and left, and ordered to lie 
down and await the aiiproach of the enemy, who by this time were 
closing up in apparently overwhelming numbers. \ now directed the 
gunners to prepare shrapnel and canister-shot, and in case the enemy 
persisted in his advance, not to lose time in sponging the pieces — for 
minutes were now of more value than arms — but to aim low, and pour 
in a rapid fire wherever the men were thickest or were ^een advancing. 
The enemy having by this time completed his preparations, and driven 
in our skirmishers, now rushed forward and opened a heavy musketry 
tire on the battery ; but from the shortness of range, or from aiming 
upwards as they ascended the ravine, their shots mostly jiassed over 
us. The command was then given to the battery to fire. Under the 
directions of Lieutenants Piatt and Thompson, Second Artillery, and 
Edwards, Third Artillery, commanding sections, the most rapid, well- 
sustained, and destructive fire I have ever witnessed was now opened. 
The men took full advantage of the permission to omit sponging, yet 
no accident occurred from it. The guns were all of large calibre, two 
20-pounder Parrott rifle guns, and four light r2-pounders, and they swept 
the field with a perfect storm of canister. No troops could stand it, 
and the enemy broke and fled in every direction, taking refuge in the 
woods and ravines, and in less than fifteen minutes not a living man 
could be seen on the ground, which so recently had swarmed with them. 
The infantry regiments had not found it necessary to fire a single shot." 
The object of the enemy's attack in force at this point was, after 
crushing General McDowell's reserves, to move on Centreville and 
intercept the retreat, and eifect the capture of the disorganized army. 
Thus, the battery and brigade of volunteers stationed at Blackburn's 
Ford, were in reality acting as a rear-guard to our retreating forces, 



LIEUTENANT PRESLEY O. CRAIG. 

and had the resistance so gallantly made by Major Hunt's battery been 
unsuccessful, scarcely a remnant of General McDowell's army would 
have escaped capture, and the going down of that day's sun would 
have seen the rebels complete masters of the field, without an obstacle 
between them and the undefended capital. The lately published report 
of General Beauregard tells us, that this was their expectation, but no 
one has yet told the world how and by whom it was foiled. 

While the preparations were being made to receive the enemy, and 
daring the few minutes of suspense that preceded their expected onset, 
the observed demeanor of Lieutenant Craig was in a remarkable de- 
gree calm and self-possessed. It was related by an officer of volun- 
teers, who found himself placed near the battery, in speaking of his 
own emotions during the trying moments that preceded the action, 
that while inwardly contending .against irrepressible sensations of 
nervous apprehension, his eyes caught sight of a mounted officer 
close by him, who was watching the approaching masses of the enemy 
with an expression of the calmest unconcern. The half-smiling face 
seemed only to bespeak expectation of the coming of a pleasurable 
event, and involuntarily contrasting his own sensations, with what the 
serene countenance and undaunted bearing of the unknown artillery 
officer betokened of undisturbed and even pleasurable emotion, he 
reflected within himself, how enviable was he who could feel so at 
such a time. 

The exposed position of Lieutenant Craig was observed by more 
than one officer, who approached him just before the action commenced 
and advised dismounting. Within a few minutes after the firing began, 
and just as he had turned his face towards the enemy, after giving an 
order about hastening the supplies of ammunition for the gunners, he 



LIKUTENAXT PRESLEY O. CRAIG. 

was struck in the I'orelioad by a musket-ljall, and falling from his horse, 
was carried, still breathing, to a temporary hospital in the rear of the 
position. In a few minutes more, the soul of one of the bravest, most 
generous, and tender-hearted of men, had passed from this world. 
The report of Major Hunt, before quoted from, concludes: 
" First Lieutenant Presley 0. Craig, Second Artillery, on sick leave, 
on account of a badly sprained foot, which prevented his marching with 
his own company, having heard of the sickness of my second lieutenant, 
volunteei'ed for the performance of the duties, and joined the battery 
the day before it left Washington. He was constantly and actively 
employed during the night preceding, and on the day of the battle, and 
his services were very valual)le. A^'hen the enemy appeared, he exerted 
himself in perfecting the preparations to receive him, and conducted 
himself with the greatest gallantry when the onset was made. He fell 
early in the .action, while in the active discharge of his duty, receiving 
a shot in his forehead, and dying in a few minutes afterwards. This 
was the only casualty in the battery." 

The care of his commanding officer and the attending surgeons, pro- 
vided for the carrying his body from the field, and its transportation to 
Alexandria during the night. Thence it was conveyed to Washington, and 
from the home he had left so short a time before in the pride of youth 
and manly beauty, was followed to a last resting-place by kindred and 
friends. Fortune had bestowed upon him many things that rendered 
his life pre-eminently a happy one. She also gave him a noble death, 
and, as if to mark a persistence of her favors, decreed that he alone, 
of the gallant oflicers who fell on that memorable field, should be borne 
from it to receive the last rites of a soldier's burial at friendly hands. 



MCCOOK. 



CAPTAIN CHARLES M. MCCOOK, 0. V. 

KILLED AT BULL RUN, July 21, 1801. 



The future annalist of America will find few names more noljly jnom- 
inent in the military movements of the American army than that of 
McCook, whose services are already attested on every woll-foiif^dit ficlil, 
from the banks of the Potomac to the upper Missouri. 'J'he noMe 
patriotism, the energy, skill, and l)ravery of the gallant fath(;r and his 
seven sons, will be remembered in many a form, and poetry lend her 
embalming power to keep them ever fresh in the minds of Americans. 

None can fail to read unmoved the following simple sketch of 

THE BOY HERO, OF BULL RUN. 
Charles Morriss McCook, was the eighth son of Hon. Daniel McC.'ook 
of Illinois. He was born at Carrollton, Ohio, on the J 7th day of 
November, a. u. 1843. While very young, his father moved to Illiiioi.s, 
where he obtained the first principles of an education. To complete 
it and fit himself for a useful and honorable life, he entered Kenyon Col- 
]e^e in Ohio, durinji; the summer of 1800, and soon won tin; esteem alike 
of his professors and his f<-llo\v-pupils. Tlic latti'r testified tliis by making 
him .secretary of tli- I'hi I)<'lt;i Society. When tin; Pn-sid.-nt issued his 



CAPTAIN CHARLES M. M COOK. 

proclamation, calling for volunteers, all of young McCook's elder brothers 
entered the army, and he could not resist the call his country made for 
his services. He left college, and joined the Second Regiment of Ohio 
volunteers, as Captain of Company H., Steuben ville Guard. He marched 
to the battle-field at Bull's Run with the rest of his regiment, the bri- 
gade to which he was attached leading the advance. 

His brother Alexander was Colonel of the First Ohio regiment, serving 
in the same brigade. His fother, sixty-three years of age, and another 
brother, now commanding a company at Cairo, accompanied him to the 
field. Young McCook nobly boi'e himself during the brunt of the 
fight, and when it was supposed that the day was ours, his father, who 
had been busily employed all day carrying the wounded off the field, 
sent for him to come over to the hospital to partake of a lunch, which 
had been provided before leaving Washington. Fatigued, and worn 
out by the terrible experiences of that carnival of blood, he came, 
having eaten nothing since the evening of the day before. 

He had scarcely finished his lunch, when a detachment of rebel 
cavalry attacked his regiment. He hastened back, but while crossing a 
field, a large body of cavalry charged upon the officers and .soldiers who 
had collected around the hospital. Seeing his danger, with the clear 
judgment of a veteran, he rushed forward to a fence, and began falling 
back. He soon attracted the enemy's attention, and a trooper advanced 
to make him prisoner, but with true eye, and steady nerve, he shot the 
rebel through the head. This deadly shot drew upon him the wrath 
of the leader of the attacking force, who i-ushod at him with diawu 
jiistol, demanding his surrendei-. But the brave boy, with flashing eye 
and undaunted heart, exclaimed, ''^ I ivill never surrender to a traitor !" 
and still kept retiring along the fence. At this critical juncture, his 



CAPTAIN CHARLES M. M COOK. 

father, seeing him surrounded by the enemy, called upon him to surren- 
der; bnt the brave boy again replied, "Father, I never can surrender 
to a rebel!" At this moment, the trooper circled around and shot him 
in the back; he demanded his surrender again, but the hero still 
refused, when the trooper began to strike him over the back with the 
flat of his sabre, threatening to pierce him through, if he would not 
surrender. His fether rushed to his rescue, and succeeded in bringing 
him back to the hospital. The wound, upon examination, was no^t ^t 
first pronounced fatal. His father (who was impressed that some evil- 
tide would befall hiua that day) had provided a couch in his carriage. 
On this he laid his wounded son, and started to Washington ci'ty 
Through all the horrors of the passage of Cub Run, amid terror- 
stricken men, overthrown wagons, dashing caissons, the father care- 
fully picked his way, until he reached Fairfax Court House; here he 
secured the services of a surgeon. The ball was immediately extracted 
the operation being borne by the noble boy with all the manly firmness 
and resolution of a hero; and when it was pronounced fatal, no shadow 
overclouded his pale cheek, no cloud marked the serenity of his boyish 
brow, but there-surrounded by the wounded and dying, whose piteous 
groans would fill the room, with his aged father near, to soothe and 
comfort him-the white-robed herald claimed him, and without a 
murmur or reproach, his spirit winged its flight to eternity. 

The surgeons and attendants having deserted their post, the aged 
parent was left alone to close the eyes of his dead son; and procuring 
the hd of a musket-box, he placed on it his remains, with the assistance 
of a negro boy, who was found in the streets of Fairfax. He then put 
them in a carriage, and drove to Washington. The report of youno- 
McCook's heroism reached the city before .his remains, and a company 



CAPTAIX CHARLES M. M'COOK. 

of Fire Zouaves awaited them at the Long Bridge, as a guard of honor, 
to escort them to his father's residence. 

The day following, they were attended to their last resting-place, 
in the Congressional burying-ground, by a large concourse of citizens, 
many members of Congress, and two regimental bands, with the proper 
military escort for one of his rank. Thus, in the bloom of youth, at the 
early age of seventeen, perished a hero, the dawn of whose life gave 
glorious promise of a bright meridian. Five of his brothers still remain 
in the army to avenge his death, while his white-haired father never 
permits an occasion to pass without being seen in the van of the fight, 
with his death-dealing rifle. 



LYON. 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON, U. S. A. 

KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK, August 10, 1861. 



Nathaniel Lyon, whose brief but brilliant career in Missouri has 
placed his name in the highest rank among our military commanders, 
was a native of Connecticut, born, as he himself gayly remarked, the 
night before his death, between two rocks, — his fother's house standing 
between two rocky hills, — in a secluded spot, at Ashford, in AVindham 
county, on the road to Hampton, out of the general route of travel, and 
far from all the busy stir and excitement of the cities and towns. He 
was born on the 14th day of July, 1819, being the seventh child, — his 
father, Araasa Lyon, a worthy farmer, respected Ijy all his neighbors. 
His mother, Kezia, was a daughter of Lieutenant Daniel Knowlton, a 
noble veteran, who served through the old French war and the Revolu- 
tion, and lived till 1825, — long enough to see his grandson evince 
the qualities most essential for the profession in which his family had 
won renown. Not only had his grandfather so long worn the harness of 
war, but young Lyon could claim with ancestral pride his close relation- 
ship to one of the names which stand in brightest colors ill our revolu- 
tionary history ; for Colonel Thomas Knowlton, who so gallantly held 
his own at the rail fence on Bunker's Hill, and afterwards redeeming 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

the honor of his State, clouded for the time by the inglorious retreat of 
her militia at Kip's Bay, planned and won the battle of Harlem Plains, 
was a brother of his grandfather. 

What wonder, then, that, even though brought up in a retired, rural 
district, a mild, dutiful boy, remembered for his filial respect to his 
mother, he early evinced a desire to enter the army, where the family 
was yet represented by the accomplished Captain Minor Knowlton. In 
1837, Nathaniel entered the Military Academy, and he devoted himself 
to the preparatory studies for his professional career with that energy, 
singleness of purpose, and method, which characterized him through 
life. He graduated in July, 1841, eleventh in his class, and at once 
received his commission as second lieutenant in the Second Infantry. 
His first field of service was Florida, and in that school, where so many 
of our military men were formed, he soon distinguished himself as an 
able, energetic officer. The war closed actively in April, 1842, but the 
arduous services of the army long continued, and Lieutenant Lyon found 
ample scope for the exercise of his zeal, especially in perfecting himself 
in all the branches which his professional advancement would require. 

A foreign war came at last, aflfording to our army what it had not 
seen for a quarter of a century, — a civilized enemy, with a disciplined 
and well-commanded army. The annexation to the United States of 
Texas, a State which had seceded from the Mexican Republic, was 
looked upon by that government as a national insult; and when the 
American LTnion avowed their determination to occupy by force all the 
territory to wliich the Texan government had extended its extravagant 
claims, Mexico prepared to resist force by force. All know how the 
war began, in 1846, by the advance of General Taylor, and the buttles 
of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

Lyon was appointed first lieutenant in 1847, and his regiment formed 
part of the army which General Scott was to land on the Mexican coast, 
at Vera Cruz. At the siege of that place, his regiment, the Second 
Infantry, formed part of General Twiggs's Brigade, and lost an officer, 
the gallant Captain Alburtis. As Scott advanced towards the capital, 
Lyon and his regiment formed part of Colonel Riley's Brigade, in 
Twiggs's Division. The Mexican army had taken post in force at Cerro 
Gordo, and to advance on Mexico, it became necessary to attack them 
in their strong position. The American army did not hesitate to meet 
them on the ground they had selected. While an assault was made by 
another division on the hill El Telegrafo, in front, Riley, on the morning 
of the 18th of April, 1847, led his brigade around the northern base of 
the hill, to gain the enemy's rear, by the Jalapa road, and the Second 
Infantry gallantly stormed the reverse of the Cerro Gordo, driving the 
enemy from before them with great loss, — Lieutenant Lyon leading his 
company to the crest of the hill in time to share gallantly in the action, 
and then dashing down in pursuit of the retreating foe, capturing a 
battery of three pieces that had been playing upon them. 

Captain Morris, who that day commanded the regiment, and Colonel 
Riley, both made especial mention of Lyon, already singled out by 
experienced eyes as an officer destined to fill a conspicuous place in the 
military annals of the country. Wiry, active in person, possessed of 
great energy and endurance, almost insensible to fatigue, of undaunted 
courage, enthusiastically attached to his profession, and anxious to excel 
in it, and to add new wreaths to the family glory, he was mentally and 
physically a perfect soldier. 

The brilliant victory of Cerro Gordo, in which he had just distin- 
guished himself opened the way to Mexico. Perote fell without a blow. 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

Puebla, where it was expected tliat a stand would lie made, was occu- 
pied without an action. The army arrived ahnost in sight of Mexico, 
to find the enemy in a most secure position, determined, in spite of 
defeat, to make one more struggle for their national honor. On the 
march, Twiggs's Division led the van, till the 15th of August, when it 
halted at Ayotla, to threaten the Pefion and Mexicalciugo, and deceive 
the enemy, while Worth advanced. The next day, however, Twiggs 
moved on Chalco, and in a brief, decisive struggle routed a for superior 
force of Mexicans at Oka Lake. General Valencia's ai'my at Coutreras 
was the next point of attack, and in the brilliant victory which has 
made that name so familiar, Lyon and his regiment bore the palm amid 
the brave. In that action, Riley's Brigade was detached to pass 
through San Geronimo, and take the enemy in the rear, but in doing 
so they were exposed to a severe fire, and the Second Infantry, forming 
a hollow square, Lyon commanding the interior reserve, stood manfully 
a charge of lancers, and repulsed them so severely, that a large body of 
infantry and cavalry, advancing to renew the attack, lost heart, and drew 
back without assailing them. At three the next morning, the Second 
and Seventh Infantry again advanced amid the darkness and the rain, 
and the former leading on quickly, drove the enemy into their intrench- 
ments, and following them up, in seventeen minutes carried the works 
at Contreras, while Captain Wessels and Lieutenant Lyon, after vainly 
endeavoring to turn their cannon on them, pressed on the flying enemy's 
rear, and took two hundred prisoners and two pieces of artillery. After 
routing the enemy from the fieldwork at Contreras, the Second Infantry 
jjressed on in pursuit to Cuyaron, where it was ordered to join in the 
attack on the Convent of San Pablo, at Churubusco. Here a fierce 
struggle took place, in a dense corn-field, the Mexicans sallying forth 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

With gallantry to gain the American flank; l,ut the charge was not to 
be checked, the victorious troops swept all before them, and soon 
Plante,! their flag on the works. For his gallantry on these well-fought 
helds, Lyon was commended to the special notice of Colonel Riley 

In the battle of Molino del Rey, Lyon took no active part his 
regiment, ordered up at the close of the engagement, arriving too'late 
to share in the victory; but they were for two hours actively skirmish- 
n.8- on the slope of the hill in front of Chapultepec, and when volunteers 
were asked to form a storming party, so n.any responded, that it had 
to be decided by lot. On the 13th of September, the regiment marched 
to the garita San Cosme, and the next day entered the city, sustaining 
a rapul fire from the houses, and dislodging the assailing forces in a 
long and tedious fight. In this service, Lyon, con.manding his company 
D., was slightly wounded by a spent ball, having passed almost un- 
l>arn.ed through the war, though ever at the post of danger 

After the close of the war, he received the brevet rank of Captain 
and was ordered with his company to Missouri, to proceed overland to 
Cahfornia, but, instead of that course, embarked and reached his desti- 
nafon by sea. He remained several years on active service in Cali- 
forn,a, receiving his captain's commission in June, LS51, the slow 
reward of fi^ithful duty. In the management of the Indians, whom he 
had here to deal with, he showed his usual energy and tact, and on 
one occasion owed his life to his steady courage, being assailed by three 
Indians, one of whom grasped his sword to ^disarm him, but he wrested 
It from hmi, ran him through, and put the others to flight. 

A yoar or two after his appointment as captain, his^-egiment was 
ordered to Kansas Territory, and he was stationed at Fort Riley The 
future Instorians of our troubles wdl be, doubtless, embarrassed to 



OEXKKAL XATHANIEL LYON. 

explain a change which took place in Northern sentiment from about 
this time. The North had been almost uniformly democratic, which 
was long synonymous with pro-slavery; but the Kansas question, in 
which the democrats could view with no approving eye the action of 
the Free State party, and had to condemn, without qualification, much 
that they did, convinced them of the insincerity, violence, and faithless- 
ness of the Southern leaders. A party arose among the democratic 
party, who insisted on some reasonalile limit to the exorbitant demands 
of the South, which, almost doubly represented in the popular branch of 
the National Legislature, had so long controlled the destinies of the 
nation. Captain Lyon was one of these democrats, and soon became 
an earnest republican. He foresaw the result. He saw the South Ijcnt 
on power or destruction. He had learned to know their spirit, and 
when, as he foresaw, the South destroyed the democratic party, he 
warmly advocated the republican cause as the cause of free labor, 
immigration, and every element of national prosperity. His contribu- 
tions to the " Maiduittan Express" have been published, and show his 
view of the difliculties which beset us. The Upas-tree, Avhich too 
many of us believed an innoxious plant, reached its full growth; its 
venom began to distil on the whole land, poisoning it to its very core ; 
but the axe is laid to the root. Let it be cut down and cast into 
the fire. 

Early in the year. Captain Lyon had been placed in command of the 
United States arsenal at St. Louis. Sumter had fallen, and the posses- 
sion of Missouri depended on the energy, self-possession, and, rarest of 
all qualities it would almost seem, moral honesty of the officer in com- 
mand of the L'nited States troops in St. Louis. Lyon possessed all the 
qualities that the moment required. His arsenal became a stronghold. 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

Tlie police commissioners of St. Louis, petty officials of a municipal 
corporation, suddenly supposed themselves a government, and that the 
United States could send its troops through or post them in the city 
limits, only by their kind consent. They demanded that Lyon should 
confine himself to the arsenal. To their insolent summons, he made no 
reply. The L'nited States, in his eye, is not a sort of millionaire, 
owning a few chateaux scattered around the country, where he keeps 
a body-guard for show, but a government, having at least a right to 
self-existence, even as against a State government, or a police com- 
missioner. At the very moment when these municipal officials pre- 
sented their demand, a camp lay without the city, upheld by the 
moral support of these very men, with its Davis and Beauregard streets, 
with its Confederate flag flying, with arms and munitions stolen from 
United States arsenals, and in open communication with the avowed 
enemies of the government of the United States. So little did Lyon 
think of withdrawing, that he was planning the capture of this whole 
force of enemies of the country, and of all human liberty. On the lOtli 
of May, he suddenly marched out of St. Louis with a large force of 
infantry and about twenty pieces .of artillery, and occupying the grounds 
commanding , the camp on all sides, before the amazed enemies of 
America could form any plan of action, sent to General D. M. Frost, a 
summons for an unconditional surrender of the whole force, giving them 
half an hour for a reply. His summons is a remarkable paper, carrying 
conviction on its face. Frost surrendered without a IjIow. The flag 
of rebellion was hauled down, and Lyon, after dismissing those who 
were willing to take the oath of allegiance, and swear not to take up 
arms against the United States, returned with his prisoners and trophies. 
An assault by a mob on his troops met its just punishment — a volley 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

which, as ever happens in riots, reached the innocent as well as 
the guilty. 

General Haniey, who soon arrived to take command of the depart- 
ment, could not but fully indorse the action of Lyon. " No government 
in the world," says he, " would be entitled to respect, that would 
tolerate for a moment such openly treasonable preparations." Made 
Brigadier-general of Missouri volunteers, Lyon was alive to every exi- 
gency. He broke up a rebel force at Potosi, seized lead-works that 
were supplying the Southern army, and captured at Harlow's landing the 
steamer J. C. Swan, that brought the arms from Louisiana to the enemy 
at Camp Jackson. By the recall of General Harney, the command of 
the department devolved upon Lyon. Governor Jackson and General 
Price sought an interview with him, in which they insisted that no 
United States troops should march through or quarter in Missouri, 
although at the very time they had invited Confederate troops to march 
into and quarter in the State. Lyon's reply settled the point absolutely. 
The troops of the United States should march peaceably everywhere 
through the United States, offering insult to none, but would oppose 
every attack and crush every attempt to molest them. Seeing that the 
mask must be thrown aside, Jackson fled from St. Louis and prepared 
for war. When Lyon found that Governor Jackson was actually raising 
forces, and endeavoring to use the civil power of the State for the 
destruction of the National Government, he took the field to prevent 
his nefarious designs. Many weak men who believed, against all evi- 
dence, that Jackson was not in league with the rebels, complained of 
Lyon, but it is clear that had his resources been greater, Missouri would 
have been spared the misery and destruction that Jackson has brought 
on her. Before taking the field, Lyon issued, on the 17th of June, a 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

in;uily proclamation to the citizens of Missouri, in which, after rehears- 
ing the various acts of Jaclvson, he concludes: "If in suppressing these 
treasonable projects, carrying out the policy of the government, and 
maintaining its dignity, hostilities should unfortunately occur, and un- 
happy consequences should follow, I would hope that all aggravation 
of those events may be avoided, and that they may be diverted from 
the innocent, and may Hill only on the heads of those by whom they 
have been provoked. In the discharge of these plain but onerous 
duties, I shall look for the countenance and active co-operation of all 
good citizens, and I shall expect them to discountenance all illegal 
combinations or organizations, and support and uphold, by every lawful 
means, the Federal government, upon the maintenance of which depend 
their liberties and the perfect enjoyment of all their rights." 

Jackson and Price, who had outwitted General Harney, fled on his 
removal, and began the work of destruction. Lyon followed to Jeffer- 
son Cit)' with a small force, and resolved to entraj:) their troops. On 
the 17th of June, General Lyon embarked with a small force at Jeffer- 
son City, and ascended the river towards Booneville. After lying by 
for the night, he proceeded agaiii in the morning, and at seven o'clock 
landed his troops on the south shore, near Rochefort, and began the 
march along the river road. After marching a mile and a half, he came 
on the enemy's pickets and drove them in. Then ascending a rising 
ground for half a mile more, he came in full view of the rebels, who 
consisted of nearly three thousand men, inflmtry and cavalry, under the 
command of Colonel J. S. Marmaduke, of Arrow Point, well posted in 
a lane running from the road to the river. Lyon at once formed his 
line, and Captain Totten began a brisk cannonade, while the infantry 
filed. Lieutenant-colonel Schaeffer to the right, and Blair with Lyon's 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

regulars to the left, pouring in a steady volley of musketry. On this, 
the enemy fell back to a height in the rear, and taking a strong posi- 
tion, advanced to meet the Americans, but Lyon, by a stratagem, drew 
them to a disadvantageous ground, and, by a well-sustained charge, 
broke them irrevocably. For a moment, the report spread that Lyon 
had Mien, but he had, in fact, been thrown by a frightened horse. The 
enemy's camp was well situated, but a few volleys dispersed them there, 
and all their tents, ammunition, and supplies, fell into Lyon's hands. 
In two hours not an enemy was to be seen, so complete had been the 
rout. Even the cannon, posted on the shore to assail the steamers, were 
captured before they could fire a shot. 

So complete a victory seemed to crush the hopes of secession in 
Missouri, and secure the State to the national cause. General Lyon 
immediately entered Booneville, and at once issued a proclamation, in 
which, after reviewing the proceedings which the bad faitli of Governor 
Jackson had compelled him to take, he said, — "This devolved upon me 
the necessity oi' meeting this issue to the best of my ability, and accord- 
ingly I moved to this point with a portion of the force under my com- 
mand, attacked and dispersed the hostile forces gathered here by the 
governor, and took possession of the camp equipage left, and a consider- 
able number of prisoners, most of them young and of immature age, and 
who represent that they have been misled by frauds, ingeniously devised 
and industriously inculcated by designing leaders, who seek to devolve 
upon unreflecting and deluded followers the task of securing the object 
of their own I'alse ambition. Out of compassion for these misguided 
youths, and to correct the impressions created by unscrupulous calum- 
niators, 1 liberated them, upon the condition that they will not serve in 
the impending hostilities against the United States government' 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

The policy of this step was unquestionable. It gained many in 
Missouri whom seventy would have driven to desperation, and Lyon's 
force was entirely inadequate to the work before him. The first rebel 
army had indeed been routed, but many bands were still in the field, 
and Governor Jackson had retreated towards Arkansas, to be reinforced 
by Ben McCulloch, already at the head of an army in that State, and 
eager to invade Missouri. 

Some trifling reinforcements reached Lyon, but he urgently called for 
force sufficient to crush the enemy at once ; yet time ran on, and on 
the 3d of July he could march from Booneville with not much more' 
than two thousand, and not even these properly fitted for the field. On 
his way, other bodies joined him, among the rest the troops under Major 
Sturgis, who met him near Clinton ; but while his numbers increased in 
this way, they lost both in numbers and effectiveness by the disbanding 
of those who had enlisted only for three months, and whose terms of 
service had expired. At Springfield, he formed a junction with Siegel, 
whose men were flushed with their victory at Carthage, and with Brown, 
so that he was able to advance against the enemy with about fifty-five 
hundred men. On the 2d of August, hearing of McCulloch's approach 
and intention to assail him from Cassville and Sarcoxie, with two col- 
umns of far superior strength, he pressed forward, with only three 
thousand, and found the rebels drawn up for battle in the ravine of 
Dug Spring, and in numbers five times his superior. They would not, 
however, advance, and Lyon had to fall back in order to draw them out. 
When the enemy, at last, opened the action, a dash of a small body of 
Lyon's American troops routed them, with a heavy loss, and when the 
enemy's cavalry endeavored to retrieve the fortunes of the day, Totten's 
battery, by a few shells, scattered them also in confusion and dismay. 



G E N E R A L X A T H A X I E I. L Y O X . 

The enemy retreated, leaving on tlie field forty killed, forty-four 
wounded, eighty stand of arms, with many horses and wagons. 

General Lyon, the next day, pursued the enemy, but on reaching 
Curran, held a council of war, and it was determined to retire to Spring- 
field. Meanwhile, he wrote urgently for reinforcements, and even tele- 
graphed to General Fremont at New York. His victory at Dug Spring 
was a barren one; the enemy's force daily increased; Lyon's appeals 
were unheeded by the government at Washington and by General Fre- 
mont, the new commander of the department. A council of war was 
convened, and it was resolved that Springfield should be evacuated. 
Against this General Sweeny remonstrated, fearing that any further 
retrograde movement would be fatal to the cause, and the evacuation 
was consecyiently abandoned. The only alternative was, consequently, 
to attack McCulloch and Price in their camp, on Wilson's Creek, nine 
miles south of Springfield. Lyon's force was but five thousand five 
hundred ; that of the enemy twenty-three thousand. Yet he resolved 
to attack and, if possible, surprise them. On the night of the 9th of 
August, he moved on Wilson's Creek, sending Colonel Siegel to take 
them on the flank and rear, while he himself, with the Missouri First 
and Second in part, the Kansas First and Second, the Iowa, and an 
Illinois regiment, eight hundred regulars, and some of the Home Guard, 
attacked in front. After resting at midnight on the march, Lyon's 
troops pushed on in the morning. As they advanced rapidly, the 
enemy's pickets fired and retreated. On reaching a point overlooking 
the valley, the enemy could be seen preparing for action, and Lyon 
opened upon them with his artillery, Totten pouring in his shell with 
great rapidity. The enemy replied with equal celerity, and moved 
forward to assail the Americans on the right flank. But the Missouri 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

volunteers, and the regulars under Plummer and Gilbert, held their 
ground manfully. When they were finally forced back by fresh troops, 
the Kansas regiments advanced, and drove the enemy down the slope, 
holding the ground under a heavy and destructive fire, till the Iowa 
troops came up, when they again dashed forward. Meanwhile Totten, 
with his well-served artillery, had dispersed a party assailing the flank, 
and a large cavalry body charging on the rear. On this the enemy 
made another desperate charge in front, hoping to crush the wearied 
Americans, but, with all their superiority of number, they were no 
match for our gallant troops, with such a general. As a fresh body 
came rapidly on. General Lyon, already thrice wounded in the action, 
but refusing to retire and have his wounds dressed, rode up, cool and 
undisturbed, encouraging the noble troops to meet them as they had 
done, but to follow up with the bayonet. "Give us a leader," they 
cried, "and we will follow to death!" His reply was prompt: "I will 
lead you. Come on, brave men!" — and they gave a volley which scat- 
tered the enemy, without requiring the charge of American bayonets. 
But in the onset Lyon fell dead, pierced through the stomach by a fatal 
ball, exclaiming to his body-servant, "Lehman, I am killed; take care 
of my body." But he fell in the arms of victory. The day was won. 
General Sturgis, succeeding to the command, rejjulsed their last charge, 
on the centre and left ; while Siegel, on the east, attacked the enemy 
in the rear, took his tents, and drove him in confusion for a consider- 
able distance, till, mistaking a body of the enemy for an Iowa regiment, 
he was, in turn, severely cut up, and lost several pieces of artillery. 
But, even with this, the advantage to the Union cause was incalculable. 

The loss of Lyon was severely felt. He had been the soul of the 
movement in Missouri ; and the crime of having left him so poorly sup- 



GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. 

ported, all seek to shun. Had he received a few regiments even, his 
life would have been spared, and the enemy hopelessly defeated. But 
the man of energy, method, activity, and courage was gone ; a reign of 
incompetency succeeded, and the real advantage, and as real prestige 
gained by Lyon, were lost. 

The body of General Lyon was buried on the farm of the Hon. J. 
S. Phelps, but was subsequently taken up and conveyed to Connecticut, 
where it reposes by the remains of his parents. On its way through 
the country, it was received everywhere with the greatest respect. 
Military honors were paid to it at Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, 
Jersey City, and New York ; and his final obsequies, on the 5th ot 
September, drew to the retired spot thousands from all parts of the 
country, anxious to do honor to the memory of so great a man. The 
funeral oration was delivered by the Hon. Galusha A. Grow, Speaker of 
of the House of Rejjresentatives ; and statesmen from various parts ad- 
dressed the assembled multitude on the merits of the illustrious dead. 

But every tongue delivered the eulogy of Lyon. Even when the 
fast-crowding events of the war seemed to hide for a time the memory 
of his services, a Missouri writer paid this noble tribute : 

"The heroic Lyon, distinguished among our military leaders for 
having struck the earliest decisive blows, and won the first distinguished 
successes against the great rebellion, — more mournfully distinguished by 
his last act of devotedness and heroism, which cou^Dles his name with 
that of the Sp.artan Leonidas, pouring out his life-blood on the soil of 
Missouri, — was not only mourned by the nation, but had kindred and 
friends who claimed the privilege of conveying his remains to the j^lace 
of his fathers, in his native Connecticut. With suitable military escort, 
the l)odv of the dead hero was borne across the continent, I'cceiving 



Ci E N £ R A L NATHANIEL L V O X . 

distinguished honors all along the way ; and the grave which has re- 
ceived it will be visited ages hence by natives of Missouri, who will thus 
evince the respect they cherish for Missouri's brave defender against 
the enemies of that Union to which Missouri owes all she is." 

The great historian of our country, whose characters of the great 
men of the past have been so admirably drawn, says of General Lyon: 

"His military services were beyond all praise; his character, as 
described to me, was beautifully earnest; and his sad death reflects 
infinite honor on his own memory, and, I fear, shame on those who 
let him fall a martyr to his duty, his patriotism, his zeal, and the dis- 
interested, natural self-sacrificing element of his character." 



JONES AND PRATT. 



LIEUTS. L L. JONES AND CALEB S. PRATT, K. V. 

KILLED AT WILSON'S CREEK, August 10, 1861. 



The first scenes of the war now desolating the Union were enacted 
in Kansas, and outrage and oppression perpetrated tliere, showed a 
design to use the power of the federal government to carry out sectional 
ends; or, when this proved no longer possible, to destroy it. The 
attempted destruction of the government of the United States was a 
crime so dark, that few could credit it ; many at the South, and most 
men at the North, believed that the attitude assumed by the leaders of 
the secession movement was merely designed to force the Republican 
party, which had just triumphed in the constitutional contest of the 
ballot-box, to concede to the Southern interest privileges which Ihey 
sought. When, however, the people became really conscious of the 
danger, and the immense army raised by the rebels had to be met in 
the field, the call of the president for volunteers met no heartier 
response than that given by Kansas, already so well aware of the char- 
acter, audacity, and strength of the enemy. If others believed the war 
a mere parade, to pass off harmlessly, such thoughts could not j^revail 
in Kansas. There, all men felt that it was to be a death-struggle, and 



LIEUTS. L. L. JONES AND CALEB S. PRATT. 

that victory could be won only after terrible carnage and sufTerings, by 
unshrinking courage, patience, and devotedness. 

The call for volunteers reaching Kansas City, men at once began to 
oi-ganize for the field, leaving all business and private concerns. The 
law firm of Lowman, Jones & Dyke were a noble example. All the 
three partners joined the army, ready to do battle under the flag of 
Washington, against those who had dared to insult and degrade it. 
L. L. Jones was a native of New York, who, after completing his pre- 
paratory studies, entered the Law School at Ballston, and graduating 
there, removed to the West, where his natural parts, his great quickness 
of perception, retentive memory, and accurate mind, gave him many 
advantages, and opened Ijefore him a vista of professional success. He 
was very active in raising the first regiment of Kansas volunteers, and 
accepted the post of lieutenant in company F. His partner, II. M. 
Dyke, recruited a company, but would not accept a commission, and 
marched as a private. He was, however, a superior man, a native of 
Vermont, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and a classical scholar of no 
ordinary merit. He had, while studying law, taught for two years in 
Kentucky before removing to Kansas, and continuing his legal studies 
with Messrs. Lowman and Jones, was admitted and associated with them 
prior to the war. 

Lieutenant Caleb S. Pratt of company D., in the same regiment, was 
a son of the heroic State of Massachusetts, where he was born, in the 
year 1835. He removed to Kansa.s, now the youngest of the States, 
innnediately after its territorial organization, and had borne an active 
pai't ill all the struggles winch arose there between the two antagonistic 
elements, when free laljor and serfdom each sought to occupy tlie un- 
tilled wilderness. He was a man of culture and refinement, mid lind so 



LIEUTS. L. L. JONES AND CALEB S. PRATT. 

won the confidence of his fellow-citizens, that he was always tlie incum- 
bent of some honorable office. On the breaking out of the war, he was 
clerk of Douglas county, and also clerk of Kansas City. 

The first Kansas regiment, in which these three were enlisted, was 
organized at Fort Leavenworth, on the 3d of June, under Colonel Deitz- 
ler, and on the 13th was ordered to Wyandot, Kansas. Thence they 
marched on the same day to Kansas City, in the State of Missouri, with 
the other troops of Major Sturgis' command. They were destined to form 
part of the army which General Lyon so promptly I'aised ; and to effect 
a junction with him, they kept on their march through Jackson, Cass, 
Bates, Vernon, St. Lawrence, Phelps, Henry, Green, Benton, and Dade 
counties to Grand River, near the town of Clinton, where they reached 
the army of General Lyon. With him the regiment marched on to 
Springfield, doing service in several expeditions on the way. 

When Lyon found it necessary to attack the enemy on Wilson's 
Creek with such troops as he had, inferior as they were to the forces 
of the enemy, the First Kansas eagerly moved forward, and on reaching 
the rebels were ordered forward by their general. They advanced till 
a terrible fire opened on them from a foe ambuscaded in the brushwood, 
not over ten rods in front of them. Colonel Deitzler, to husband the 
lives of his force, ordered them to lie down and wait till they could see 
the enemy : and a severe fire was kept up for some time, but as the 
rebels would not come out, he drew back his force to a battery on 
the hill, and reforming, again advanced. The enemy, believing them 
routed, had sallied, and a severe fire of musketry now began. The 
Kansas First, although outnumbered, and fighting at every disadvan- 
tage, held the ground from seven to twelve, when they finally fell back 
from the bloody field. 



LIE UTS. L. L. JONES AND CALEB S. PRATT. 

In this action, the regiment suffered severely. Lieutenant Pratt was 
shot through the heart, while leading on his men ; Lieutenant Jones was 
also killed, and his partner, Mr. Dyke, mortally wounded. 

The news of the losses of the regiment were mournfully received at 
Kansas City; and, as several officers and privates were members of the 
bar or connected with the courts, a meeting of the bar was held on the 
2d of September, at which the Hon. Josiah Miller presided, and reso- 
lutions were adopted, expressing the regret of the profession, for the 
loss of Lieutenants Jones and Pratt, and of Lewis L. Litchfield the 
deputy sheriff of the county, who also lost his life on the glorious 
field of Wilson's Creek. 



LOWE. 




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/') 



y'/?^ /z ^'^f^_^ 



COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE, 0. Y. 

KILLED AT CARNIFEX FERRY, Septembee 9, 1861. 



John Williamson Lowe, son of James B. Lowe and Katherine 
Keenon, was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on the 15th of 
November, 1809. They were a Scotch family, and were at one time 
in comfortable circumstances ; but financial disasters, and long-continued 
ill health, reduced them to poverty. In 1817, they removed to Rah- 
Avay, where John began the labors of life in the woollen fiictory of a 
]\Ir. Cohue. Three years after they removed to New York, and the 
next year his ftither died, leaving a widow — -for he had married a second 
time — and five children with no earthly support. Mrs. Lowe struggled 
with her heavy charge, finding her greatest resource in her stepson, who 
resolutely went to work, saying, — "Mother, I will work for you and 
these children as long as I can stand. We are not beggars yet." 

He found employment in the printing-office of the Bible House, and 
for some years he worked hard learning his trade, and studying dili- 
gently at night by the light of their solitary candle, watching over the 
other children, and filling, as well as he could, his dead father's place to 
them. He took care of them until they were able to take care of them- 



COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE. 

selves, denying himself every thing until they were beyond the reach 
of want. 

About the only pleasures of his life at this time, to which he in later 
years referred, grew out of his connection with a Thespian Society, and 
with the New York Cadets, a military company at that time the j^ride 
of the city, commanded by Captain James Riley. Ilis love of theatricals 
was a youthful passion, which soon died away ; but his love of every 
thing connected with military life, grew with his growth. 

In 1833, he came West to seek his fortune, and settled in the town 
of Batavia, Clermont county, Ohio. Here, while supporting himself at 
his trade, he pursued with energy and steadfastness of purpose the study 
of the law. In due time he was admitted to practice. Difficulties 
innumerable presented themselves in his pathway, but he pushed on 
through or over them all. Invincible determination and obstinate per- 
severance, joined with the purest honor and high-toned courage, brought 
him through, and gained him the respect of every man that knew him. 

The Mexican War broke out, and although he had opposed heartily 
the party whose policy brought it upon us, — though his wife, his boys, 
his business, gave him every reason to wish to remain at home, and a 
sufficient excuse. — yet he said he knew something of military life and 
military duties, his country needed his services, and he must go. A 
company was raised in the county, tlic command of it offered to him; 
he accepted it, and went, serving till his regiment, the Fourth Ohio, was 
disbanded, in 1848. 

When peace was declared, he returned to his home, and again 
devoted himself to the practice of his profession. A year or two after, 
the cholera raged with extraordinary violence in Batavia and the sur- 
rounding country. The care of the sick and the burial of the dead 



COLONEL JOHN W. LOWK. 

devolved upon the few to whom neither disease nor death was a terror. 
The wife, the mother, with two or three other devoted men and women, 
met the emergency, with him, in the true spirit of heroism and philan- 
thropy. "It is just like a battle," he would say to his faint-hearted 
fellow-citizens, "and we are like a regiment under a terrible lire. Our 
friends are falling all around us, and it may be our turn next; but let 
us meet the enemy boldly. It is no more dangerous to stand than it 
is to run." 

In 1855, he removed to Xenia, Ohio, where he resided at the time 
of the beginning of this present war. The citizens came to him then 
and said, — " Our young men are volunteering, and you are tlie only 
man in our county who knows what war is, and how to take care of 
them, and make them soldiers. You must lead them." He was no 
longer young, and the sedentary life he had been leading had destroyed 
almost all of the elasticity of his fi"ame. He felt that he could not bear 
the hardships of a campaign ; but he heard the call of duty, and her call 
he had never learned to disobey. As he went, he said — " I will never 
return alive." 

Two days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter he led over a 
hundred young men into the camp at Columbus, and expected to go the 
next day east, to the defence of Washington. The Twelfth regiment 
was organized, and he chosen unanimously its colonel. The election 
was declared informal, and a new one ordered, and he was again chosen 
to the position, without opposition. The capital of our country was no 
longer in immediate danger, and the regiments at Columbus were 
reraoVed to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, for instruction in the 
duties of soldiers. 

Early in the following month the Twelfth was attached to General 



COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE. 

Cox's Briiijade, and made a part of his force in the advance up the 
Kanawha river. Tlie general complimented it as the best regiment at 
that time under his command, and gave it always the position of honor 
and danger. The only liattle that it was necessary to fight to clear the 
rebels out of the valley of the Kanawha was fought by the Twelfth, with 
detachments from other regiments, all under the command of Colonel 
Lowe. The following account of the movements and operations of that 
day, the most momentous of his life, was written by the officers of the 
Twelfth, and was found upon his person when he fell. 

"Many remarks having Ijeeu made in regard to the affair at Scarey 
Creek, and the conduct of the officers and men of the Twelfth Regiment 
having undergone some criticism in the newspapers of the day, we deem 
it a duty to ourselves and our regiment, before the statements of imper- 
fectly informed correspondents pass into and become history, to give an 
impartial and accurate description of that fight. 

"On the morning of the 17th of July, Colonel Lowe was ordered by 
General Cox to take his regiment, with a detachment of the Twenty-first 
Ohio, Captain Cotter's l)attery of two pieces of artillery, and a few 
dragoons, to explore the country about Scarey, ascertain the position 
and strength of the enemy, carry the point, if possible, and extend the 
line of our operations to Coles Mouth, four miles further up the river. 
The whole command did not number over one thousand men. Colonel 
Norton, commanding the detachment from his regiment, the Twenty- 
first, was assigned an advanced position, worthy of his gallantry and 
experience. 

"A strong force of skirmishers, under Major Ilines of the Twelfth, 
preceded the column, feeling the way cautiously along, until within a 
quaiter of a mile of Scarey, when they came upon the picket guards of 



COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE. 

the enemy, who fired their muskets and hastily retired. Knowing 
notliing of the ground, or tlie position or the force of the enemy, the 
column advanced slowly and carefully, the cavalry being sent on to 
examine some Ijuildings which stood on the brow of the hill in front 
of us. They had scarcely shown themselves, when the rebels opened 
upon ns from two or three pieces of artillery, muskets, and rifles. Their 
fire was severe, and the ground being entirely unknown to the com- 
mander of the expedition, he was compelled to make the necessary 
observations, and arrange the plan of attack in front of the rebel bat- 
teries, before our forces could reply. The enemy was found to be 
strongly posted on the brow of an almost inaccessible hill on the oppo- 
site side of Scarey Creek, about four hundred and fifty yards from the 
point at which the road by which we approached comes around another 
hill into view. They had breastworks, and ample shelter for their 
troops. Their right rested on the Kanawha river ; their left on a high 
and well-wooded mountain. The bridge at the mouth of Scarey had 
been burned ; and a row of houses and a fence extending out from the 
river along the creek, furnished an excellent position for their riflemen. 

"The disposition of our forces was promptly made. Captain Cotter 
advanced his artillery to the brow of the hill on our side, and opened 
fire in gallant style on the enemy's battery on the hill opposite. Major 
Hines, with three companies, plunged into the valley on our right, and 
attempted to scale the mountain and turn the left flank of the rebels. 
Colonel Norton, with his detachment of the Twenty-First, and Lieuten- 
ant-colonel White, with four companies of the Twelfth, were sent to the 
left at a double-quick step down a steep hill, and under a galling fire, 
to attack the right of the enemy on the river. The other three com- 
panies of the Twelfth remained on the hill, to support the artillery, and 



COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE. 

draw the fire of the enemy to the front, while our movements were being 
made against eacli flanl':. 

" So steady and aecurate was our fire, especially that of Captain Cot- 
ter's artillery, that in aliout twenty minutes, the enemy's cannon were 
dismounted and silenced, his ammunition-wagon blown up, the rifle- 
men in the mountain were in full run to their rear, and the day seemed 
to be clearly our own. The movements on both flanks were pushed 
ftirward with vigor. On our left, the riflemen were rapidly cleared out 
of the houses and from l)eliind the fence along the creek, but our men 
encountered great difficulty in crossing the creek, which was nearly 
waist deep in mud and water, and in ascending the steep bank on the 
other side. Here was much of our hardest fighting, and here we suf- 
fered our greatest loss. Colonel Norton fell severely wounded before 
crossing the creek, and the command under Lieutenant-colonel White 
pressed on in the face of a galling fire, climbed the steep bank, pene- 
trated the enemy's lines — gradually, but surely gaining his rear. The 
light continued with every prosjiect of success, and without the least 
indication of a reverse, until it was ascertained that our ammunition was 
nearly expended. Entertaining no idea of a protracted fight, we had 
brought with us but thirty rounds. About the time also that this 
heart-sickening discovery- was made, the glad shouts of the enemy, and 
the long lines of men that were approaching in the distance, showed us 
that strong reinforcements for them, both of infantry and artillery, were 
at hand. They .soon came up, and opened on us a heavy fire from their 
•artillery along the river-bank. Our whole force being already engaged, 
and having no reserve to call into action, the colonel was compelled to 
send the artillery to the rear, and our forces gradually withdrew, un- 
pursued, and bearing otf all our wounded not inside the enemy's lines. 



COLONEL JOHN \V . LOWE. 

The compauies whose position had been on the riglit, though much 
exhausted by their hard work on the moimtain, sutfered less than the 
others, and came off in good order, forming our rear-guard. 

"Judging from what we could see, and the ground occupied and 
covered by the enemy, his force was originally about fifteen hundred 
men, and his reinforcements were from four to six hundred, with artillery. 
It is evident, also, from the testimony of deserters, and others who had 
excellent means of knowing, that their loss was very heavy — not less 
than sixty-five killed, and wounded in proportion." 

In the latter part of August, Colonel Lowe went with his regiment 
down the Kanawha and up the Ohio to Parkersburg ; thence, to join 
the army of General Rosecrans at Clarksburg. As soon as this general 
had collected the force he considered necessary, and completed his 
preparations, he started upon a long and weary march south through 
Weston, Bulltown, Sutton, and Summerville, to open communication 
with General Cox, at Gauley Bridge. Weak and borne down by dis- 
ease as he was, the colonel kept his place at the head of his regiment, 
sustained alone by his indomitable will. From Sutton he wrote to his 
wife: "We are marched almost to death. We have met with one un- 
ending succession of hills. They roll like the billows of the ocean, or, 
rather, seem as though they were waves of a great ocean, which, at the 
moment of their greatest agitation, had suddenly become solid." And 
again : " I feel as though my life's journey was nearly ended. The 
chances of war render it very probable that this is so ; but still, you 
must not despond. God has given us many, very many happy hours 
together, and if it be his will that we meet no more on this earth, you 
must thank him, as I do, for the happiness he has already granted us, 
and submit with resignation to his holy will." 



COLONEL JOHN VV . LOWE. 

Ill his last letter to his wife, written four days before his death, and 
which reached her the morning after the intelligence of his fall, he said : 
" The clouds of war are gathering thickly about us, and I know not 
what my condition will Ije when they lift above the scenes. I find 
myself hoping, and it is now about my only hope, that I will soon be at 
home a maimed soldiei', to receive your care for a little time, and then 
lay me down to my long rest. Wait yet a little longer, dearest, a ivcck. 
a day may relieve our suspense, and bring my iate upon me. God rules 
over all things, and disposes of us as he thinks best. . . . And now, 
dearest, good-night. May angels guard you. and keep you. If I am 
taken from you, rememl)er that I have laid down my life in a great 
cau,se, and in the line of duty. And don't give way beneath the stroke. 
It is but death at any rate, and then a long eternity of rest and peace. 
If we cannot meet again on earth, we will in heaven. Love to our chil- 
dren, and to you a thousand kisses, my adored, my Ijeloved wife." 

On the afternoon of September 10th, 1861, after a march of seven- 
teen and a half miles, the Tenth, the foremost regiment in the advance 
brigade, found itself in front of the rebel position they had marched so 
far to lind. The gallant Irishmen, without waiting until the other regi- 
ments belonging to their brigade came up, charged at once upon it, and 
the battle was begun. The Thirteenth next came into position, and 
finally the Twelfth came near, led by its way-worn and weary colonel. 
"Cannot any one tell me how to reach the field?" said he: "my brigade 
is bearing the brunt of the battle. Tell me how to go to its assistance." 
The road was shown him, and in a few minutes he was with the Tenth, 
directly in front of the battery, in the thickest of the fight. There, a 
moment later, a ball pierced the centre of his forehead, and he fell to 
rise no more. 



COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE, 



At the head of his men, in a sacred cause, in the hour of victory, 
without a pang, died John W. Lowe, at the battle of Carnifex Ferry, in 
Virginia, on the 10th of September, 18G1. 

General Cox, in reviewing his services, says: "I found that caution 
was an element of his mind, which modified his courageous desire for 
brilliancy of action ; and that, with a full appi-eciation of the disadvan- 
tages under which new and undisciplined troops must act, he preferred, 
and, indeed, regarded it as a conscientious duty to act with a deliberate 
prudence, which would risk as little as possible for the sake of mere 
show or dash. Some, who could not understand how this quality was 
connected with personal bravery, were inclined at one time to call his 
courage as an offic('r into question. Those who had the best opportu- 
nities of judging, and who were with him under fire, are unanimous in 
testifying that he seemed wholly unconscious of personal danger, and 
careful only for the lives of the men under his command." 



BAKER. 




''b.,.i A dScill 




yMX2j'^~ 



u-«^ 



COLONEL E. D. BAKEK, U. S. SENATOR. 

KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF BALL'S BLUFF, October 21, 1861. 



Among the saddest losses which have been inflicted upon the country 
since the opening of the war, is that of the late lamented Edward D. 
Baker, Colonel of the First Regiment of California Volunteers, and 
Senator of the United States. Colonel Baker participated in the battle 
which took place near Leeslxirg, iu Virginia, on the afternoon of 
Monday last, and fell at the head of his troops while waving his 
sword and cheering on his men. By his death, the country is deprived 
of one of its most eloquent advocates in the superior chamber of our 
national legislature, and one of its most seasoned and fearless cham2)ions 
in the field. 

Colonel Baker, though his ripened years presented him to the 
country as an accomplished lawyer and a soldier of repute, began life 
under the most humble circumstances, and is indebted to no regular 
scholarship, either in literature or arms, for the distinction which, in 
both of these positions, he achieved. He was essentially one of those 
spontaneous creations, which our noble institutions so frequently de- 
velop, and which are most honorably known among us as "self-made 



COLONEL EDWARD D. BAKER. 

nieu." And that Colonel Baker was a high specimen of that class, 
may be seen by the difficulties which retarded him at his outset, and 
by the pitch of elevation he attained. 

The dead Senator was of English birth, Init he came to this country 
when five years of age, and by the choice of his father was settled in 
Philadelphia, that Quaker neighborhood being especially congenial, 
as the old gentleman was of the Society of Friends. In a few 
years the parent died, and left Edward and a younger brother relation- 
less, and unprovided. Labor, however, that common patron of the 
well and willing, extended its resource through the occupation of his 
father, and he obtained employment as a weaver in a small establish- 
ment in South-street of that city. There he remained faithfully at work 
for a considerable j^eriod of time, devoting his earnings, for a while, 
to the support of his brother, and gradually instructing him, that he 
might, in time, support himself. Possessed of an ardent imagination, 
he naturally took a deep interest in reading, and his taste being stim- 
ulated by the allurements of romance, enlarged, until it embraced the 
whole range of sober as well as of illusive literature. But none, how- 
ever, saw in that patient, thoughtful, never-flagging boy the future 
statesman whose youth was worthy of a lift. Modesty is a good maxim 
for the manners of a youth, but genius always knows itself; and Edward 
Baker, whose mind had dwelt upon the marvels of the West, feeling 
within himself that confidence which innate strength inspires, deter- 
mined to seek its broad and inviting platform for his future. 

Youth needs but little preparation when it sets out to seek its for- 
tune ; and hope at all times requires but little backing. Edward, 
though he had but little means to make the journcsy, communicated 
his resolution to his brother, and the twt) young adventurers, with 



COLONEL EDWARD D. BAKER. 

packs upon their slioulders, strong staffs in their hands, and stout, 
hopeful hearts within their bosoms, set their faces towards the Alle- 
ghanies. On foot they undertook tlieir ascent, and on foot they 
crossed ; and so they trudged along, through broad intervening States, 
until they found themselves in that portion of the then far West 
which was known as Illinois. Here the young men paused and 
cast their lot, Edward selecting Springfield as the special place of 
residence. There, in a little while, he was enabled to turn to account 
the legal reading which he had begun in Philadelphia; and having 
a happy gift of language to help it into use, he soon was enal^led to 
make a living at the law. By fast degrees he rose, and ripening with 
exercise, it was not long before he was among the most popular advo- 
cates at the bar. 

Through his pi'osperity he was now enabled to look beyond the 
narrow circle of the private spites and griefs in which the mere attor- 
ney is required to abuse his mind, and the broad field of politics 
invited him to the discussion of more lofty topics. He embraced the 
doctrines of the Whig party, and transferred his eloquence to the forum 
with such effect that he soon won his way to Congress. He occupied 
his seat in the House of Representatives with dignity and credit, and 
was fast being recognized as one of the leaders of that body, when 
the temptations of the Mexican camjaaign appealed to his ardent and 
enthusiastic mind, and induced him to abandon civil life, and seek 
an employment in the way of war. He went to Illinois, raised a regi- 
ment, and took it to the Rio Grande. A pause in the campaign enabled 
him to return temporarily to Washington, in order that he might 
express himself upon the policy of the war and cast his votes; l)ul| 
that done, he went back to his command, and followed its fortunes 



COLONEL EDWARD D. BAKER. 

on the line from Vera Cruz. All the actions of the contested road to 
Mexico recognized his valor ; and when Shields fell at the head of his 
brigade at Cerro Gordo, it was Bakers distinguished fortune to rise 
to the command, and to lead the New York regiments through the 
bloody struggles of that day. Well do we mind the lofty look with 
which the noble Senator, fifteen years more of snow being on his head, 
told the people of this city of that circumstance, in April last, when, 
all together, wc pledged ourselves at Union Square, to avenge the 
parricidal blow at Sumter ! 

Returning to Illinois in triumph. Colonel Baker was again elected 
to represent his district in the halls of Congress, and he served there 
until 1850 ; but at the end of his term, he yielded to some views of 
business, and went out for awhile to Panama. The local fever, how- 
ever, soon drove him home, where being recruited in his health, a new 
contagion touched his mind. This was the memorable epidemic which 
directed universal attention to the Pacific shore; and yielding to the 
fascination, the soldier who had become unsettled liy the excitements 
of the war, turned his footsteps to the new El Dorado of the West. 
His fame had gone before him, and he was spared any efforts to pop- 
ularize himself in this new field of effort. lie took at once a superior 
position at the bar of San Francisco; and a large proportion of the 
heavy cases of the circuit sought the advantage of his treatment. 
By common consent he was acknowledged to be the most eloquent 
speaker in California; but a proof was in reserve, in a circumstance 
beyond the mere limits of forensic eloquence, to create for him the claim 
of being, perhaps, the most accomplished orator in the world. Brod- 
erick, that noble young tribune, who had defended California from the 
doom of Slavery, and stood the stern bulwark against the domineering 



COLONEL EDWARD D. BAKER. 

hordes of Southern " Chivahy," had been taken in the toils of a band 
of pistol sharps, and slain. 

" They have killed me because I was opposed to the extension of 
Slavery and a corrupt Administration," was the last declaration of the 
dying Senator; and as the words fell from his lips, they became fire 
in the heart of the weeping orator who helped to close his eyes. 

The empire city of the Western Ocean was steeped in gloom at 
the contemplation of the monstrous deed. All trade was stopped : no 
sound of bustle was heard along the street ; and, by common consent, 
without pageant or parade, or any sound but the low, measured, muf- 
fled throb of the church -bells, the dejected people, walking as if they 
almost held their breaths, gathered in the main square, and formed 
themselves, like so many shadows, round the bier. At the foot of the 
cofiBn stood the priest ; at its head, and so he could gaze freely on the 
face of his dead friend, stood the pale figure of the orator. Both of 
them, the living and the dead, were self-made men ; and the son of the 
stone-cutter, lying in mute grandeur, with a record floating round that 
cofiBn which bowed the head of the sun-ouuding thousands down in 
mute respect, might have been proud of the tribute which the weaver's 
apprentice was about to lay upon his breast. For minutes after the 
vast audience had settled itself to hear his words, the orator did not 
speak. He did not look in the cofi&n — nay, neither to the right nor 
left; but the gaze of his fixed eye was turned within his mind, and 
the still tears coursed rapidly down his cheek. Then, when the silence 
was the most intense, his tremulous voice rose like a wail, and with an 
uninterrupted stream of lofty, burning, and pathetic words, he so pene- 
trated and possessed the hearts of the sorrowing multitude, that there 
was not one cheek less moistened than his own. For an hour he held 



COLONEL EDWARD D. BAKER. 

them as with a spell ; and when he finished, by l)ending over the calm 
face of the noble corse, and stretching his arms forward with an impres- 
sive gesture, exclaimed, in quivering accents, "Good friend! brave heart! 
gallant leader ! true hero ! hail and farewell!" the audience broke forth 
in a general response of sobs. Never, perhaps, was eloquence more 
thrilling ; never, certainly, was it better achipted to the temper of its 
listeners. The merit of the eulogy divided public encomium with the 
virtues of the deceased, and the orator became invested witli the dead 
senator's political fortunes. The senatorial field in California being, 
however, not open to immediate occupation, Colonel Baker transferred 
himself to Oregon, and thore the glow of his last eifort soon carried 
him to the highest honors of that State. He was elected senator for 
the full term of six years in 1860, and at the time of his death had 
enjoyed its lofty honors only for two sessions. How he improved the 
privilege of his place by great ai'guments in favor of the Constitution, 
and by withering denunciations of the advocates of treason, has been 
a matter of universal and applauding cognizance. He was, in fact, the 
master debater of the war-term of Congress ; and that he had the cour- 
age to give his oi'atory force, the shrinking Benjamin, who withered 
at his words, and tlie blanched Breckenridge, whom he " cast from the 
Tarpeian rock," can well attest. 

But even these honors, and the acknowledged prominence which 
he had won in his last powerful position, was not enough for his active 
and daring spirit while the country was in arms. He left the Senate 
to raise a regiment ; and when that was I'eady, he led it to the field. 
He fell, as we have stated, with the "light of battle" on his features; 
his death being as eloquent as his life, and contributing by its noble 
manner, a large compensation for his lo.ss. The event, however, has 



COLONEL EDWAKU D. BAKER. 

penetrated the nation with the deepest sorrow, and, at the same time, 
it has laid a new obligation on our settlement with treason. 

Upon the writer of this article, perhaps, the tidings of his loss 
fell with a more startling effect than upon any person else. It was 
our good fortune to know Colonel Baker well, and we had the honor 
to entertain him as our guest at dinner, on an afternoon in the 
month of August last. On that occasion, when we expressed (in 
view of the recent disaster at Manassas) a natural concern as to the 
deportment of his troops, he said: "Wilkes, I have some peculiar 
notions as to the j^art I am to play in this extraordinary war ; and 
I want you to bear in mind that what I now say to you is not the 
result of any idle fancy, or vague impression. It is doubtful if I shall 
ever again take my seat in the Senate !" To the look of surprise 
which I turned upon him at this expression, he replied, " I am 
certain I shall not live through this war, and if my troops should 
show any want of resolution, I shall fall in the first battle. I cannot 
afford, after my career in Mexico, and as a senator of the United 
States, to turn my face from the enemy!" There was no gloom or 
depression in his manner, but it was characterized by a temperate 
eai'nestness which made a deep impression on my mind. 

Lo ! before October has shed its leaves, his sword lies upon his 
pulseless breast, and his toga has become the cerements of the 
grave. 

" Good friend ! brave heart ! gallant leader ! true hero ! hail and 
farewell !" 

G. W. 

New York, October, 24, 1861. 



PUTNAM. 



LIEUT. WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. 

MORTALLY WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF BALL'S BLUFF, 

October 21, 1861. 



Lieutenant Putnam, Second Lieutenant in Company E of the Twen- 
tieth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, received a mortal wound 
while in action with his regiment at Ball's Bluff, and died the next 
day. His body was conveyed to his native city, and interred with 
military honors. Before his remains were committed to the earth at 
Mount Auburn, the "Reverend James Freeman Clarke read the follow- 
ing notice of his life and character at the funeral service, which was 
performed by the Rev. Dr. Bartol, in the West Church, where the 
grandfather of the noble young patriot had for many years presided 
as the revered pastor. 

" The boy-soldier, whose remains are before us, came, by both parents, 
from the best New England races. His father is descended from the 
ancestor of old General Putnam, and his family on this side contains 
such statesmen and scholars as Timothy and John Pickering. On the 
other side, his mother's family has given to us statesmen, sages, patriots, 
poets, scholars, orators, economists, philanthropists, and now gives to 
us also a hero and martyr. His great-grandfather, Judge Lowell, in- 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM LOWELL PTTTNAM. 

'rierted in the Bill of Rights prefixed to the Constitution of this State, 
the clause declaring that 'all men are born free and equal,' for the 
purpose, as he avowed at the time, of abolishing slavery in Massa- 
chusetts; and he was appointed by President Washington federal 
judge of this district. His grandfather was minister of this church, 
honored and loved as few men have been, for more than half a cen- 
tury. Of others I need not speak — but to those who knew not per- 
sonally our young friend, I may say that his native powers and scholarly 
habits indicated that he would fully keep the promise given in the 
traditions of his family. 

"Born in Boston in 1840, he was educated in Europe, where he 
went when eleven years old ; and where, in France, Germany, and 
Italy, he showed that he possessed the ancestral faculty of mastering 
easily all languages, and Avhere he faithfully studied classic and Chris- 
tian antiquity and art. Under the best and most loving guidance, 
he read with joy the vivid descriptions of Virgil, while looking down 
from the hill of Posillippo on the headland of Misenum and the ruins 
of Cnmse. He studied with diligence the remains of Etruscan art, 
of which perhaps no American scholar, though he was so young, 
knew more. And here let me mention a distinguished French savan. 
Dr. Guepin, of Nantes in Brittany, who took a peculiar interest in 
William Putnam, and devoted himself to his instruction as if he had 
been his parent. This excellent scholar and generous gentleman 
will hear of his death with pain, scarcely less than if William were 
his own child. Thus accomplished he returned to his native land, 
but, modest and earnest, he made no display of his acquisitions, and 
very few knew that he had acquired any thing. When the war 
broke out, his conscience and heart urged him to go to the service 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. 

of his country. His strong sense of duty overcame the reluctance 
of his parents, and they consented. A presentiment that he should 
not return alive was very strong in his mind and theirs. But he 
gave himself cheerfully, and said, in entire strength of purpose, that 
to die would be easy, in such a cause. And in the full conviction 
of immortality he added, ' What is death, mother '? It is nothing 
but a step in our life.' His fidelity to every duty gained him the 
respect of his superior officers, and his generous, constant interest in 
his companions and soldiers, brought to him an unexampled affection. 
He realized fully that this war must enlarge the area of freedom, if it 
was to attain its true end ; and in one of his last letters, he expressed 
the earnest prayer that it might not cease till it opened the way for 
universal liberty. 

" These eainiest opinions were connected with a feeling of the wrong 
done to the African race, and an interest in its improvement. He took 
with him to the war, as a body-servant, a colored lad named George 
Brown, who repaid the kindness of Lieutenant Putnam by gratitude and 
faithful service. George Brown followed his master across the Poto- 
mac into the battle, nursed him in his tent, and attended his remains back 
to Boston. Nor let the devoted courage of Lieutenant Henry Sturgis 
be forgotten, who lifted his wounded friend and comrade from the 
ground, and carried him on his back a long distance to the boat, and 
returned again into the fight. Such actions show that Boston boys 
retain the old spirit of their fathers. 

" In the fatal battle a week ago, Lowell fell, as is reported, while 
endeavoring to save a wounded companion, — fell, soiled with no igno- 
ble dust — ' non indecoro pulvere sordidum.' Brought to the hospital 
tent, he said to the suroeon. who came to dress his wound — ' Go to 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. 

some oue else, to whom you can do more good ; you cannot save 
me,' — -like Philip Sidney, giving the water to the soldier who needed 
it more than himself. 

"Brave and beautiful child! — was it for this that you had inherited 
the best results of past culture, and had been so wisely educated and 
carefully trained ? Was it for this, to be struck down by a ruffian's 
bullet, in a hopeless struggle against overwhelming numbers ? How 
hard to consent to let these precious lives be thus wasted, apparently 
for naught — through the ignorance or the carelessness of those whose 
duty it was to make due preparation, before sending them to the 
field ! How can we bear it '? 

" We could not bear it, unless we believed in God. But believ- 
ing in God and Christ, we can Ijear even this. It is not any blind 
chance, not any human folly, which controls these events. All is as 
God wills, Avho knows what the world needs, and what we need, 
better than we can know it. He uses the folly and sin of man for 
great ends ; and he does not allow any good and noble eff"ort to be 
lost. The death of Christ seemed, at the time, an awful waste of the 
world's most precious treasure ; a waste of the noblest flower of the 
human race. Christ, tlie Son of IMan, )jy cruel and brutal hands 
crucified and slain, seeintd a great waste, but 'ivas the redemptiou 
of the world. And the death of Christ has taught us that it is 
God's great law, that the best shall always be sacrificed to save the 
worst, — the innocent suffering for the good of the guilty. This is 
the law, ordained before the earth was made ; and every pure soul 
sacrificed in a struggle with evil, is auoth(;r 'lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world.' 

"And dd we not see, in these great sacrifices, that the heroism 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. 

itself is already a great gain ? Is it riot something to know that 
we do not belong to a degenerate race? Is it not a great blessing 
to know that we also, and our sons, are still as capable as our fathers 
were, of great and noble sacrifices — that Massachusetts, God bless her ! 
still produces heroes — that these boys of yours, trained perhaps in the 
lap of luxury, can at the call of their country, spring to battle, and 
die cheerfully for their land? Is it not something to see that they 
23ut into simple facts and plain reality the grand words of old poetry, 
and say, ' I wish, 

'In some good cause, not in mine own, 
To perish, wept for, honored, known, 
And like a warrior overthrown, 

' Whose eyes are dim with glorious tears 
When, soiled with noble dust, he hears, 
His country's war-song thrill his ears.' 

" Yes, we lose them, these precious children, but we gain them 
while we lose them ! They go from us in their strength and beauty ; 
but they go direct to God, and come to us again from Him, transfigured 
in the light and glory of his Heaven. We take them with us in our 
hearts wherever we go. We feel the exalted life which they have 
attained. There come to me, at this time, some singularly applicable 
lines of Schiller, in his Wallenstein — singularly applicable, because this 
German play was one which William Lowell was very fond of reading, 
and in which the character and fate of Max seem so parallel to his 
own. When Max fell in a battle like that of last Monday, when he 
was attacked by overwhelming numbers and no retreat was possible, 
these are the words of his friend — 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. 

' He, the more fortunate ! Yen, he hath finished ! 
For him there is no longer any future. 
His life is bright — bright without spot it was 
And cannot cease to be. No ominous hour 
Knocks at his door with tidings of mishap. 
Far off is he, above desire and fear : 
Oh, 'tis well with him.' 

"'Well with him I' and well also with the land which bears such 
sons. Their sj)irit deepens ours, deepens the soul of courage through- 
out the land, calls out more valor, more devotion. When we hear 
of such deaths, we feel how happy we also should be to die so. We 
feel as Pulaski felt — I quote an anecdote told me in my youth. Pulaski, 
the Polish soldier, was gently rebuked by Washington for rash exposure 
of his life. He replied, ' General, my father died, killed in battle, 
when he was -twenty-two ; my grandfather died in battle, fighting 
for his country, when he was twenty-three : General, I am twenty- 
five, and I am ashamed to be alive.' We feel almost ashamed to be 
alive, when we hear of these sacrifices. Such deaths are not in vain, 
for they rouse the whole soul of the land — and the blood of the 
martyrs is again the seed of the church. 

" Farewell then, dear child, brave heart, soul of sweetness and fire ! 
We shall see no more that fair candid Iirow with its sunny hair, 
those sincere eyes, that cheek flushed with the commingling roses of 
modesty and courage. Go, and join the noble group of devoted 
souls, our heroes and saints. Go with Ellsworth, 2:)rotomartyr of this 
great cause of Freedom ; go with Winthrop, poet and soldier, Qur 
Korner with sword and lyre ; go with the chivalric Lyon, bravest 
of the brave, leader of men ; go with Baker, to whose utterance the 
united murmurs of Atlantic and Pacific oceans gave eloquent rhythm. 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. 

and whose words flowered so early into heroic action. Go with our 
noble Massachusetts boys, in whose veins runs the best blood of the 
age. Go gladly, and sleep in peace. Those who loved them, as 
much as parents ever loved child, give thee joyfully in this great hour 
of their country's need. Our Massachusetts mothers, more than Roman 
mothers, because Christian mothers, bring their spotless lambs to the 
altar, expiatory victims for a nation's sin. We shall rise, together, 
parents and children, to the high level of this great historic day. 
Happy, happy death — coming to him who, 'being made perfect in 
a short time, fulfilled a long time.' For if, as the ancients say, 'honor- 
able life does not stand in length of time' — if, 'an unspotted life is 
old age'— if, 'youth that is soon perfected condemns the many years' 
passed in mere routine and worldly self-seeking — then we may rejoice 
over these dear brothers and sons, who have gone to God in all the 
purity of their souls, not dying in vain. ' They pleased God, and he 
took them.' " 



GROUT. 



LIEUTENANT JOHN W. GKOUT, MASS. Y. 



KILLED AT BALL'S BLUFF, October 21, 1861. 



The subject of this sketch won a chiim to this ineiiiorial, not only 
as being one of the first commissioned officers that has falkni in this 
campaign from the State of Massachusetts, but also as leaving a fame 
independent of fiction, of exaggeration, and of the partiality of friends. 

He was born in the summer of 1843, and had barely attained the 
age at which a legal claim could l)e made u|)on his service, when he fell 
a voluntary sacrifice on the altar of his country. 

Of medial stature and symmetrical proportions, erect carriage, and 
remarkably fine and manly features, and with elastic vigor and "the 
crimson glow of health," he seemed "every inch a soldier," and might 
have been selected as a model by an artist. Ilis physical (pialities were 
admirably complemented by his moral and intellectual. Though the 
child of affluence, privilege, and indulgence, and exposed to the tempta- 
tions incident to life in a city, he was yet above all reproach or sus- 
picion in respect of his hal)its and associates. With uniform outward 
respect for religion, he united a cheerful seriousness and frankness in the 
expression of his religious views and feelings. Says a friend — " I have 
known of his bearing niproacji and ridicule with the same coui-age he 



LIEUTENANT JOHN W. GROUT. 

exhibited in the last acts of his life." A generous charity and a, high 
self-respect, the modesty of a child and the self reliance of a man, a 
genial amiableness and a dignified reserve, — were a rare combination 
of qualities, which contributed alike to the rigid disciplinarian and the 
favorite companion. He was a proficient at the pianoforte and in math- 
ematics, and had a genius for the art of drawing ; to which he added 
some knowledge of the French language and of the ancient classics, and 
a cultivated elocution. 

lie was the only son of Jonathan Grout, Esq., of Worcester, and of 
the sixth generation from John of Sudbury, who was the grandson of an 
English knight, "not improbably descended from the brilliant Raymond 
Le Gros." The latter is famous as having had "command of the Eng- 
lish army" in Ireland; and John, for his heroism as ensign in leading 
his townsmen triumphantly against the assaults of the Indians in 1676, — • 
for which he was rewarded " with a captaincy, then a substitute in the 
colony for knighthood in England." 

In his childhood and early youth, the late lieutenant exhibited some 
signs of the military genius of his ancestral blood. A treasured speci- 
men is a whittled dagger with a Union shield on it, — now doubly 
prized. But not until he entered the military department of Caleb B. 
Metcalf's Highland School, in Boston, was his element discovered, and 
"his taste gratified." Such were his aptitude, enthusiasm, progress, and 
promise, that he was soon made captain of the cadets; and when the 
occasion called for the practical use of his military knowledge, it found 
him master of all the principles and details " in the schools of the com- 
pany and battalion." 

When all were quaking under the sad and sudden tidings of actual 
rebellion, and under the immediate proclamation for an army of defence. 



LIEUTENANT JOHN W. CROUT. 

it is not surprising that his parents resolutely clung to their darling 
"hope of future years." With filial deference and painful regret, ho 
relinquished his earliest purpose, in hope of their ultimate consent. 
" When they yielded to his importunities, his joy knew no bounds, and 
Avith all the ardor of his nature he engaged in the work of preparation," 
practising the self-denials which would best inure him " to the hardships 
of the camp." Meantime his services were in great demand in drilling- 
volunteers ; and his knowledge and efficiency were so highly estimated, 
that, in the organization of the Fifteenth Regiment, notwithstanding his 
youth, he was welcomed to Company D, with "the commission of second 
lieutenant." Yet, until their departure for the seat of war, the drilling 
of the company devolved mainly upon him, and became the occasion of 
his winning the highest compliments from gentlemen of militaiy honors, 
and of raising the highest expectations in respect of his future career. 

His patriotism, however, did not consist in his love of military life 
and distinction. Rather than retain his office against opposition, he 
would have entered the ranks as a private. He assured his friends, not 
with buoyant rashness, but with serious candor, that he had girded on 
his armor for all the emergencies of war, and for victory or death. He 
seemed to feel the solemnities as well as the responsibilities of his posi- 
tion, but never faltered in his purpose or in the duties he was subse- 
quently called to discharge. 

After the regiment joined the army, he continued to be, according 
to the testimony of Colonel Devens, a model of behavior. His respon- 
sibilities were soon increased, in consequence of the first lieutenant 
being detailed for the Signal Corps. Attentive to the wants of his 
men, and generous almost to a fixult, punctual in every duty, and ever 
seeming to have greater resources in reserve than were yet in requisi- 



LIEUTENANT JOHN W . GKOUT. 

tion, lie had the confidence and friendship of his company, and the 
respect and good-will of the I'egiment. Trne to his nature, he chose for 
the drilling of his soldiers localities somewhat retired ; whither, however, 
spectators repaired to admire his mature self-possession and his uner- 
ring skill. Like Colonel Baker, he seems to have had a presentiment 
that these pastimes would not long continue; and, alas! his knowledge 
and his mettle were soon put to the most terrible proof 

The story of Leesburg, Octolier 21st, is, in general, familiar to all. 
It was the fortune of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment to be in the 
thickest of the fight, to do the greatest execution, and to suffer the 
greatest loss. But Lieutenant Grout was found adequate to the duties 
of his office. Ilis coolness and self-possession, his precision and courage, 
were astonishing, and of great eflect upon the courage and efficiency of 
his men. In the terrific showers of leaden hail. Providence shielded 
him from harm. The spontaneous metaphdr in which the testimony is 
borne, is that he fought like a tiger. Sometimes his sword anticipated 
the muskets of his men. Upon the foe who would l)ayonet a wounded 
soldier, he executed summary and seasonable wrath. \\'hen a muzzle 
was at his breast and a hand upon the trigger, his I'ight arm parried the 
weapon and })ierced the assassin to the heart. " Every blow of his 
sword told." lie verified the promise, that he would never surrender. 
But victory was hopeless. To continue on the field, was to increase the 
sacrifice of loyal blood. Yet with unflinching firmness the residue of 
the regiment withstood the foe till they heard the order to retreat. 
But when they obeyed that order, they knew that they had done the 
utmost in the power of men, and that " Mas.sachusetts had reason to be 
proud of the conduct of her .sons on that field of carnage." 

But his coolne.«s and discretion and generosity did not forsake him. 



LIEUTENANT JOHN W . OROUT. 

Driven to the bank of the river, he still forgot himself in the services 
he rendered to others. With inadequate means for transportation, he 
crossed the stream with the wounded, and returned. Again the frail 
boat was tilled to its utmost capacity, and he remained upon the shore. 
But the eagerness for self-preservation hazarded too much, and many 
who escaped the enemy on the field, found another beneath the waves 
of the Potomac. The remainder were now reduced to the last ex- 
tremity. And when the young lieutenant went up to his superior with 
the calm but heroic inquiry, " Is there any thing more that I can do ?" 
the reply of Colonel Devens, to whom no epithets of commendation can 
do justice, was: "Nothing, but take care of yourself." And when the 
colonel cried to his brave but sorely tried men, " I shall never surren- 
der!" and with the benediction, "God be with you all," gave the 
final order, "Every man for himself," Lieutenant Grout had done his 
dufi/, and nobly justified the highest expectations of his numerous 
friends and enthusiastic admirers. 

After waiting for the first faint light of the rising moon, he threw 
his incumbrances beyond recovery, and, with a few companions, plunged 
into the stream. But before he could reach the ojjposite shore, the fatal 
ball of the barbarous assassin left him only time and strength to exclaim : 
"Tell Company D that I should have escaped, but I am shot!" 

The sad tidings were aggravated by the ineffectual search for his 
remains. But at length the Potomac yielded up the treasure, which in 
due time was borne, with military and municipal honors, and under the 
flag (Sf his heroic love, from the paternal mansion " to the house ap- 
pointed for all living." He is truly lamented; and the mourning circle 
includes at least his native city and the honored Fifteenth Regiment. 

It is pleasant to imagine what exalted rank and distinction he might 



LIRUTKXAXT JOHN' W. GROUT. 

have attained. But his career is finished ; and his example and fome 
are a rich legacy to the young men of his native commonwealth. 
"Many," said he, "that are perfectly able to go, are very brave and 
forward until it comes their turn ; then it is another story : they need 
somethitKj to stir tJtem up.'" The noble deeds and sacritices at Ball's 
Bluff may be the very thing designed by Providence to stir them up. 
As the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church, so for every 
hero and patriot that falls in the service of the country, ten should 
hasten from their homes to vindicate the sacredness and value of their 
country's cause. 



SHIPLEY. 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM SHIPLEY, ILL. Y. 

MORTALLY WOUNDED AT BELMONT, November 7, 1861. 



The unanimity with which all classes of the American people have 
come forward to uphold the threatened Constitution and government, 
is one of the most consoling signs of the era. . Sectional jealousies are 
forgotten. The very matter of nativity, so lately made a vital question, 
is forever put at rest. In the struggle now enacting, the American in 
heart, wherever born, is the true American, and a Haggerty, a Brown, 
a Shipley, a Bielaski, better deserve the name than a Davis or a Mason. 
Those who fight beneath the American flag are Americans, those who 
have rejected the flag can lay no claim to the glorious title. 

Germany gave us young Shipley. Born on the 2d of November, 
1839, his mother, soon left a widow, sought, like so many thousands of 
her countrymen, a home in the great and free republic of the West. 
But her hopes were perhaps too sanguine, — she reached Illinois in great 
distress, unable to find employment while burdened with a child. 
Fortunately, her case became known to the Hon. 0. H. Browning, and 
the child whose future seemed so cheerless, had the influence of a cul- 
tivated, religious family thrown around his youth, and the kindly hand 
of a superior man to aid him in establishing himself in life. He was 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM SHIPLEY. 

regularly indentured to Mr. Browning at the age of six, and soon 
secured a i)lace in the affection of the family, such as kindred by blood 
do not always attain, so exemplary, industrious, and studious were his 
habits. As soon as he acquired enough of the language, he was placed 
at school, and was a constant attendant at the Sunday-school, as pupil, 
and later as teacher, till he set out for the war. He grew up a pure, 
high-minded, cool, courageous boy, free from all profanity or impurity. 
At a proper age, he selected the trade of a carpenter, and learned his 
trade thoroughly. On reaching the age of eighteen, Mr. Browning 
gave him his indentures, and placed a sum of money at interest for him. 
The young man thus left to himself, did not disappoint the hopes of 
his i'r lends. 

Upon the breaking out of the war, he was one of the first to enlist, 
and was one of the one hundred and seventy-five men who left Quincy 
under Captain Prentiss, on the 21st of April, and proceeded to Cairo, by 
the way of Springfield. This body was one of those first called out for 
three months, and at its expiration, he returned home with the rest of 
the men. But his heart was too warmly in the cause. After spending a 
few weeks at home, he re-enlisted in Captain Schniitt's company for 
three years or the war. Duidng the three months of his second service, 
for Providence decreed that its duration should not be prolonged be- 
yond that brief period, he was, according to the testimony of his supe- 
rior officer, Colonel N. B. Buford, " the most exemplary officer in the 
regiment — a model for others — a Christian gentleman and soldier." 
For some time before the engagement on the seventh of November, he 
had been sick, and the colonel had advised him to remain in charge of 
the camp, but when the order came to march, he was at his post, 
refusin"- to stav liehind 



LIEUTENANT WILLIAM SHIPLEY. 

The expedition left Cairo on the 6th of November, under the com- 
mand of Generals Grant and McClernand, and lauded at Belmont at 
eight o'clock next morning. The American forces comprised the 
Twenty-Second, Twenty-Seventh, Thirtieth, and Thirty-First Illinois, 
the Seventh Iowa, with the Chicago Artillery and some cavalry. The 
object was to break up the enemy's camp at Belmont, and in case he 
sent reinforcements from Columbus, to attack that also, by a force sent 
down on that side. The attack on Belmont was eminently successful. 
Although the enemy were seven thousand strong, the Americans, 
Schmitt's company leading, routed them, and plant( d the American 
colors on their camp. As new troops were sent, however, from Colum- 
bus in successive divisions, led by Pillow, Cheatem, and by Polk in 
person, the Americans fell back to their boats, cutting their way through. 
In the attack on Belmont, Lieutenant Shipley's company was first in the 
engagement, first in the march to take the enemy in the rear, first in the 
enemy's camp, and last to leave the ground before the thrice reinforced 
troops of the enemy. 

Lieutenant Shipley carried with him into the battle a small pocket 
Testament, given him just previous to his departure, and in the early 
part of the engagement, a musket-ball struck this Testament as it lay 
exactly over his heart, and he escaped unharmed. He stood up nobly 
and manfully, as did all his company through the fearful battle, but 
while conducting the retreat at four o'clock in the afternoon, was struck 
by another musket-ball, which passed through his body from side to side, 
immediately above the hips. All who fell at that critical juncture had 
to be left on the field. The next day a number of Americans, under a 
flag of truce, were allowed to visit the field, in order to bury the dead, 
and remove such of their wounded comrades as had been left on the 



L I E U T t: N A N T WILLI A .M S H I P L E Y . 

field. They Ibiind Lieutenant Shipley alive and perfeetly rational. He 
had lain there all night, had Ijeen stripped of his money, his watch, his 
arms (pistols and sword), but his Testament was left — the rebels seem- 
ingly placing no value on such ti'ojjhies. 

He was taken on board the boat at ten o'clock, and received every 
possible aid under the circumstances, Init his life could not be saved. 
He died on the boat before reaching Cairo, about evening, and, despite 
his suflerings, was rational to the last moment, and died in the triumph- 
ant hope of a glorious resurrection. 

His regiment, with sad lieaits and reversed arms, accompanied his 
remains to the boat which was to convey them to Quincy, whither Cap- 
tain Schmitt accompanied them. Quincy prepared to honor the first of 
iier soldiers slain on the battle-field. His funeral took place from the 
house of Senator Browning, the protector of his youth. 

Rev. Dr. Warren, of Macomb, for some time pastor of the Old School 
Presbyterian Church (of which Lieutenant Shipley was an exemplary 
niemljer), conducted the exercises, assisted by Rev. Mr. Piper, the 
present pastor. They were brief, but appropriate and impressive. At 
the conclusion, the remains were borne to the hearse, and escorted to 
their last resting-place, in Woodland Cemetery, by a very large pro- 
cession of military, young men, citizens, and friends. 

sio 



A L D E N 



CAPTAIN HENKY H. ALDEN, xN. V. Y 



KILLED AT BALL'S BLUFF, October 21, 1861. 



The heroic State of Massachusetts, first to shed her blood in defence 
of the Union, dyeing with its purple tide the streets of Baltimore, has 
given many of her sons for the cause, not only in the regiments raised 
in her borders, but from the shores of her bay to the Rocky Mountains. 
At the battle of Ball's Bluff, the Massachusetts regiments fought witli 
determined courage ; and in other regiments, too, sons of the Bay State 
showed equal heroism. Among these was Captain Alden, of the Forty- 
Second New York Volunteers, commonly called the Tammany Regi- 
ment. 

Henry H. Alden was born in the town of Middleboro, Massachusetts, 
April 16th, 1833, but while still in early infancy, his parents removed 
to the town of Lyme, New Hampshire, and here he grew up on his 
father's farm. As he advanced, he showed a desire to render himself a 
useful man, and at the age of fifteen, while still attending the village 
academy, obtained a position as clerk in a store at Lyme. His progress 
was such, that he soon became himself a teacher ; but trade and com- 
merce were more suited to his tastes than the routine of the school-room, 
and he was clerk successively at Hanover, New Hampshire, and at Troy. 



CAPTAIN" HKXRY H. ALDEX. 

The city of New York, the great centre to wliich so many enterprising 
young men hasten, soon attracted young Aldeu, and he proceeded to it 
with a warm letter of introduction from his employers in Troy to E. J. 
Brown & Cd., of that citv, who gave him immediate employment, and 
were so pleased with his ability and qualities, that they continued their 
connection with him till his departure for the war. 

During the course of the year 18G0, he became a member of the 
famous New York Seventh Regiment, joining the second company, then 
commanded by Captain Shaler. He was highly esteemed by his fellow- 
soldiers for his zeal, efficiency, and the modesty of genuine merit. In 
the political struggle of the year, he took an active part for the Union, 
and was the corresponding Secretary of the Young Men's National 
Union Club, during the political campaign which resulted in the election 
of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency. He was also a captain of the minute- 
men, a quasi military organization of the epoch, which has since fur- 
nished gallant soldiers for real service. 

When the war Ijroke out, he was no less ready to serve the Union 
in the field than he had been in the peaceful struggle of the ballot-box. 
He readily marched with his regiment to defend the city of Washington 
from unhallowed hands. The services of that regiment have been 
chronicled by an able hand, now lost to his country. We have fol- 
lowed it in other sketches. The Seventh did not, indeed, take part in 
any engagement, yet of that noble band who moved down the crowded 
streets of the great city, amid the intense feeling of all, this volume 
contains tributes to three — Winthrop, Farnham, Alden — already num- 
bered among America's glorious dead. 

On the return of the Seventh Regiment to New York, Alden imme- 
diately sought an opportunity to serve the cause of the Union, for he 



CAPTAIN HENRY H . A L D E N . 

was already in heart enlisted for the war. One of the Union Defence 
Committee offered him a lieutenancy in the Tammany Regiment, which 
Colonel William D. Kennedy was forming. As modest as he was brave 
and capable, he at once accepted the proposal, and was received ; as 
the process of organization went on, however, his military knowledge 
was so apparent, that the colonel had him made captain of the company, 
on the 28th of June. In organizing new regiments, little difficulties 
frequently occur. To meet one of these, it is said that Captain Alden, 
ever anxious for the general good, gave up his company, and accepted 
the command of the tenth. 

The death of Colonel Kennedy delayed the equipment and I'ormation 
of the regiment, but when Cajjtain Cogswell of the Regular Army suc- 
ceeded to the command, the regiment was soon ready to take the field. 
It then left its camp at Great Neck, Long Island, and, on the 17th of 
July, marched from New York to the seat of war. 

On reaching the capital of the Union, the Forty-Second was at first * 
stationed on the height to which Joel Barlow has left the name of Kalo- 
rama, but was soon assigned to the division commanded by Brigadier- 
general Stone, on the Potomac, near Edward's Ferry. Here Captain 
Alden was for six weeks engaged in arduous picket duty, near 
Conrad's Ferry. When General Stone received the order to make a 
demonstration on Leesburg, on the 20th of October, the Tammany Regi- 
ment was one of those sent by him to Conrad's Ferry, opposite Harri- 
son's Island, to be in readiness for action. A single rebel regiment 
appeared, but retreated from the shells of the American troops. After 
passing the night at Conrad's Ferry, the Forty-Second was added to 
Baker's Brigade, as part of the force with which he was to cross the 
river. When Colonel Baker, in the morning, heard the firing, and, 



CAPTAIN HENRY II. ALDEN. 

becoming anxious to support Colonel Devens' Massachusetts men, crossed 
in a small skiff, he ordered the Forty-Second to follow hira. The regi- 
ment was instantly in motion. Colonel Cogswell wished Alden to 
remain with the reserve, but he came up asking to lead the advance, 
or, if his company did not go, to be in the advance even as a private. 
His enthusiasm was not to be resisted; he led the advance of the regi- 
ment, and, being officer of the day, was in full uniform, with his scarf 
over his shoulder. Before crossing, he addressed his men, telling them 
that they were going into action for the first time, — to behave like men : 
"Keep cool," said he, "obey my orders, follow me, and follow that" — 
drawing the elegant sword just presented to him by his company. 

After reaching the Virginia shore, he again addressed those who had 
been able to cross, — not more than fifty in all,- — repeating his former 
admonitions, and bidding them avenge him, if he fell. Colonel Cogs- 
well led his men up the hill, and on, past the Fifteenth ^lassachusetts, 
who cheered them as they went through the open field, encircled by 
woods, where the enemy were posted. A body of troops appeared 
coming from the Leesburg road : the officer in advance calling out, 
"Bakers Brigade," misled the Forty-Second, who supposed them Ameri- 
cans, but when they were within a hundred yards, they saw their error. 
A regiment of rebel Mississippi rifles were upon them. The Forty- 
Second gave a volley, and when it was returned. Captain Alden fell 
dead, shot by a sharp-shooter in a tree, the ball striking him on his right 
breast, severing the main artery, and passing out at the left hip. His 
men, led by R. M. Seabury, second lieutenant, dashed on to avenge him, 
charging at the point of the bayonet; while a well-directed shot from the 
Nineteenth Massachusetts, sent his murderer plunging down in death 
from his elevated post. 



CAPTAIN HENRY H. ALDEN. 

The Americans were, however, outnumbered and surrounded, and 
Colonel Cogswell ordered the retreat. The men fell back, fighting 
steadily, but compelled to leave the body of their gallant captain on the 
ground. The disasters of that retreat, from the insufficient transporta- 
tion, are too well known. Many were drowned by the sinking of the 
boats, or were shot in the water by the enemy. 

On the day after the battle. Colonel McGurk, of Mississippi, appeared 
on the shore, and asked why the Americans did not cross to bury their 
dead. Captain Vaughn, of the Third Rhode Island Battery, immediately 
went over, with ten men of the Twentieth Massachusetts, and began the 
pious task, although first tempted, and then detained by the rebels. He 
found Captain Alden's body where he fell ; but his lifeless remains 
showed the cruelty and rapacity of the foe. He had been killed on the 
spot, yet his right side showed three bayonet thrusts, which had been 
dealt upon his lifeless body. His cap, sword, sash, buttons, belt, and 
shoulder-straps were gone, his pockets rifled : the lining of his waist- 
coat, marked with his name, alone enabled Captain Vaughn to ascer- 
tain who he was. 

On hearing of his death, Mr. W. K. Comstock, a devoted friend and 
fellow-member of the Seventh, hastened to the camp of General Stone to 
endeavor to obtain Captain Alden's body. The permission of the War 
Department was needed to send a flag of truce. This obtained. General 
Stone, on the 30th, sent a flag of truce to General Evans to obtain per- 
mission to remove the body of Captain Alden, and also to send letters 
and refreshments to the sick and wounded prisoners. After a delay 
caused by his consulting his superiors. General Evans, on the (3th of 
November, dispatched Colonel Jenifer to signify his permission for a 
party to cross on the following morning. Mr. Comstock accordingly 



CAPTAIN HENRY H. ALDEN. 

went over the river, with a coffin and men, and in a heavy rain pro- 
ceeded to the grave where Alden had been hastily placed, in the bed 
of a ravine, and disinterred his remains. The body was received at the 
camp with honor, and, after a funeral service, escorted towards Wash- 
ington. After being embalmed, it was brought to the city of New 
York, and laid out at the armory of the Seventh Regiment, in Tompkins 
Market, and on the 16th of November the regiment paid the last honors 
to their gallant associate. The funeral service was read by the Rev. Mr. 
Weston, the chaplain of the regiment, and the body was then escorted 
to the boat by Company B, Captain Emmons Clark, with the full regi- 
mental band, the colonel attending, and two officers of the Forty-Second, 
Captain Graham and Lieutenant Paine, acting as pall-bearers. 



G A V I T T. 



MAJOR JOHN SMITH GAVITT, IND. V. 



KILLED AT FREDERICKTOWN, Mo., Sept. 21, 1861. 



John Smith Gavitt was born in Madison, Jefferson county, Indiana, 
March 18, 1826. At an early age he moved, with his parents, to Vander- 
burgh, of which he was a citizen at the time of his death. Reared amid 
the scenes of a frontier life, he grew up a wild boy, fearless of danger, 
living in the midst of excitement and turmoil, beloved by his friends, 
feared by his enemies, and admired by all who appreciated his many 
good qualities. In July, 1848, he left the home of his boyhood for 
California. With all the energy of his nature, he threw himself into the 
contest for wealth in that land of gold, and was so far successful as to 
return with a handsome fortune. The party with which he intended to 
sail becoming dissatisfied with Major Gavitt, he withdrew from the 
organization which had been perfected, and went out relying upon his 
own resources for success. The sequel of the undertaking was illustra- 
tive of the character of the man. He succeeded where others failed, 
and many of the party who had abandoned Major Gavitt were indebted 
to him — in the far West — for clothing and food, and the means to 
regain their homes. 

After his return, he was elected to the sheriffalty of Vanderburgh 



MAJOR JOHN" SMITH GAVITT. 

countv, and after serving two years, returned to California, bat in 1S52 
and in 1858 was again elected sherijBE! He filled the office to which he 
was thus three times called by the people with an ability rarely equalled 
in the State, and his skill as a detective officer was acknowledged by 
the police department of all our Western cities. 

Major Gavitt was an active politician, a democrat of the State 
Rights school, and a firm and unwavering supporter of Mr. Douglas, 
whose nomination he warmlv urged at Charleston and Baltimore, incur- 
ring the resentment of that section of the body which there initiated the 
present troubles, by disorganizing the democratic party, and insuring its 
defeat, in order to make that very defeat a pretext for an unconstitu- 
tional attempt to revolutionize the country, seize the federal govern- 
ment, and by terror of arms force the North into submi^on. 

Major Gavitt was so obnoxious to the extreme advocates of Brecken- 
ridge, that on one occasion a personal collision had well-nigh ensued, 
but his undaunted bearing and courage so established his charactei; that 
no fiirther difficulty occurred. 

When the attempt of the disorganizers to carry out in our happy 
laud the course which has ruined Mexico failed, and they found it neces- 
sary to make a real war where they intended only a demonstration, 
Gavitt rallied to the support of the government constitutionally formed. 
He left his business, and enlisted for the war. He was appointed major 
of the First Regiment of Indiana Cavalry, and left EvansviUe with his 
command for Missouri in August. 

He was stationed at Pilot Knob, and soon had occasion for active 
service. He was virtually commander of the regiment, and on the 15th 
of October he set out, at the head of the First Indiana Cavalry, to support 
Major Hawkins of the Independent Missotiri Cavalry, and with Colonel 



XAJOK JOBS SMITH GATITT. 

Alesaader. to reeosaoiire ifee oosntzy as m- as Fr€»i€3ici7c«ii. Hear- 
ms. «s he a^psvaciied sse io'ktl ikas TfeosEnscs ■s-ss ifesie is i*>riDeL be 
sesis back ic<s- raBjSxtei^&^iis. boi as d^ey deSajieidL lie p'"3siaa <>-. i:L £ 
deose wgs. cZ -^ — -li— s-rl; rii::i^ ir f-:-: — cane ob ik-e ei - "crs. 
A ^arp T-:._r7 ^'--^'^"^i ■:■- ':';-ii siri aad iSe g ^r ^ .,_im 

AjBBeneas ore. nse eseoij' "»":=ri5- s:>.xi drirea m>si ih^ poeidos. aisd 
r^ireaied k> tbe teadgse. "Kixi was dc^ssdeid W sr;:" ~r 

£ATiBt? be€s aceorajiiybad. libgor Gavin, ix*-*- iiZ 
^sessv's ssTrCSih. pr-efazed lo &II bac£ lo aae AsiaicaB fiKises eomiiijr 
to ids Jt^jciL. aad vidi i^es agsiii pe-ismed. bai oa reeesrisig his "roeijd. 
drew OS m good ocder. Tfee AjKsieaa ooope Trs~e sc«>s p .:iis3ed hr 
ihssr Ibe. who had recoT<eted a fitde oosn^ie. tti tjaTiii. jg ^^? iiis 
mftiiny and araQay ia aab^^ drer Ae cb^v's c&TSirf imo dbe tzap. 
aad Asj vs^ sowed dowa In- As Xmnpn t^it wps. 

M^or GaTix:~s gaBaiitzT and soasegr in shk aSar csdearel Hn : : 
b^ mes. aad l>e -si^ Bade lieBtesaBi-CG^oad. aldio^ii his rv- - — --^ -- 
aerer leadbed koH. 

Ob ^»e 31~s. a cxi»daable Aaiaicaa iarts adraaeed 7o diire ii>e 
€»cas» oei oe' F?€d£ziek£ovn. lie iroope eca^Sed <s Masai's Hsfc- 
Kesik EiBc-s BisgnaasS. a seesaoa os Tajior's bas^y. Ss<esf^^i"s azid 
LaiKTBain's caT^iy. j^ke ■(« ifee EleFeaak llksoazi. aad lae T-s-eirr-T^i^s. 
TkirCv-l^iFd. aad Tkinr-E^hik Iffiaois. dae TSgfeth Wsoosssz^ a^^d 
GaTiis's ajsd. HavM^' i^gJBi^iss. vidk SAc«SeM"5 Eghi anilfaT. Ea- 
ger tt> bave aaosaa- bea^ vi^ hs kjie aziiag>oc5ssi. Majk-r GsTiii led 
fesTtiT OB. bes Th"nnpTii aad Liowe. dissziasaasg li-sr C'"*!; ss'aigiiL 
aJbaadoeed Fiedisie^aowR aad iteszieased. j^ as Isss made a saaz>d. p^si- 
i^ tfc caaaci res lo advajosas^ Wbilr Sc^iSeld >:>peaed kis ardEe^-r cm 



MAJOR JOHN SMITH GAVITT. 

the enemy's guns, Gavitt led a charge upon them, and, with the intrepid 
Captain Highraan of Posey county, fell dead on the field, — Major Gavitt, 
whose eagerness to come up with the enemy had led him tliirty yards 
in advance of his command, receiving no less than five balls in various 
parts of his body. But he did not fall unavenged. In the irresistible 
charge of his men, the enemy were swept off the field, and fled, leaving 
their commander Lowe and many of their men scattered in death over 
the bloody field. 

Major Gavitt left a widowed mother and three orphan children to 
mourn the loss of a fixithful son and fond father. 

His remains, borne from the field of his fame, were interred with 
military honors at Evansville, followed by the many friends who felt, 
when he went forth to the war, that he would never move among them 
again in life, — so conscious were all of his fearless courage, and his deter- 
mination to do all that in him lay to bring this wicked war to a speedy 
close by the prompt suppression of rebellion. 






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